Picture the wildest weather event on Earth. A volcano explodes, sending a column of ash miles into the sky — and then, inside that churning cloud of grit and gas, lightning starts crackling like a thunderstorm gone rogue. Now imagine that lightning slams down onto the pile of ash and rock the volcano just spat out, and instantly melts it into glass. That's a volcanic lightning fulgurite. Let's break down what that actually means, one plain-English step at a time. First, what's a "fulgurite" at all? Forget volcanoes for a second. Fulgurites are old news, geologically speaking — they've been recognized since the early 1700s. The basic idea is simple: lightning is absurdly hot, <cite index="3-1">reaching temperatures around 30,000°C</cite>, which is several times hotter than the surface of the sun. When a bolt like that hits sand, soil, or rock, it doesn't just scorch the surface — it melts it, instantly. Because the ground cools f...