Debunking Sweet Home Alabama

I'm sure most of you have seen the movie, Sweet Home Alabama. I have and enjoyed it. However, something about that movie is soooo wrong and it bothers me every time I see it.

So, to all the Geologist out there, I've got your back on this one!

Remember the beautiful glass pieces that were pulled out of the sand after lightning struck the sand in a thunderstorm? They were great weren't they? Bet you looked for one on ebay after the movie.

You did, didn't you?

Come on.....you can tell me.

Well, guess what, you can find one on ebay! Only catch is that it's not quite going to look like it did in the movie. (Imagine that)

It's going to look something like these.

Disappointed? Don't be....this is the real deal and there is nothing better than that, right? To think that these are formed by a split second moment in time....it's amazing. They are rare treasures waiting to be found in the sand.

So, what are they? They are called Fulgurites. First, I will tell you what they are like and then I will explain how they are formed.

They are hollow, as you will see in the picture below, they are extremely light weight, they have a rough texture on the outside. Some of them have a smooth, glass like appearance and texture on the inside. When you hit them together, they have a high pitched tone.....they sound like glass clanking together or wind chimes. I think they are great and I like to think of them as lightning fossils.

Here is how they are formed. Fulgurite is the varietal name given to fused Quartz, SiO2, which has been fused by the action of lightning striking the Earth and locally melting the sand. Some of the best Fulgurite specimens are found in Quartz sand, where the Fulgurite takes the form of a tube or tubes. The best known Fulgurite was found in Florida. It consisted of three branches totalling 38 feet! Wouldn't that have been fun to find?! There are Sand Fulgurites and Rock Fulgurites.

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Let me break it down for you!

Sand Fulgurite...as lightning strikes the Earth and courses downward through the sand, the sand is instantly super heated and therefore melts or fuses together. After the sand cools, glass-like hollow tubes can sometimes be found beneath the sand. Sometimes branching as they descend and sometimes extending several feet - usually decreasing in diameter.

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Rock Fulgurite...they are formed when lighting strikes the surface of a rock, melting and fusing the surface, and sometimes the interior of the rock.

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Here is something interesting about the origin of the name Fulgurite....

In Europe, during the Medivial times a ringing church bell was thought to protect the local village from a certain type of weather. Because of this belief, it was common for church bells to be inscribed with the words "Fulgura frango", meaning " I break the lightning". A lovely thought.....church bells protecting a village from lightning, but in one 33 year span, more than 100 bell-ringers lost their lives disproving that theory. Needless to say, the inscriptions disappeared pretty quickly; but, the Latin word for lightning "fulgurate" survived and became the root of the English word fulgarite meaning lightning fused sand.

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So, the next time you are at the beach, start your treasure hunt. You might be able to find a little piece of sand that captured a moment in time. Neat thought.

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I think they are sculptures of nature - God being the artist, of course. That beats Hollywood any day of the week in my book!

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AKM