When a high energy lightening strike bombards a rock, it can heat the rock more than 3,000 degree Fahrenheit which can be twice as hot as lava and deforms not only the appearance of the rock, also the chemical bond that holds it together.
When this happens, the lightening zapped rock becomes covered in natural glasses called fulgurites. In the new study, the researchers took a microscopic look at the quartz fulgurites and found a thin layer of warped quartz crystal underneath the glassy quartz, induced by the high pressure of the strike. This warped layer consists of distinct, parallel and remarkably straight lines and can only be seen with intense magnification. This features control the fundamental structure of the rocks.
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