fulgurite

[ fuhl-gyuh-rahyt ]

/ ˈfʌl gyəˌraɪt /

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noun

a tubelike formation in sand or rock, caused by lightning.

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Origin of fulgurite

1825–35; <Latin fulgur (see fulgurate) + -ite¹

Words nearby fulgurite

fulgent, fulgurant, fulgurate, fulgurating, fulguration, fulgurite, fulgurous, fulham, fuliginous, full, fullback

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

How to use fulgurite in a sentence

It might hit the beach, perhaps forming a beautiful deposit of fulgurite.
Let’s learn about lightning|Sarah Zielinski|June 8, 2021|Science News For Students
The authors of the new study collected fulgurite that had been produced by lighting hitting the ground in Illinois in 2016, initially just to study the effects of extreme flash heating as preserved in these kinds of samples.
How lightning strikes could explain the origin of life—on Earth and elsewhere|Neel Patel|March 17, 2021|MIT Technology Review
This life-through-lightning model is limited to environments with shallow waters—lightning must produce fulgurite in areas where it can dissolve properly to release the phosphorus, but where it won’t become lost in a vast body of water.
How lightning strikes could explain the origin of life—on Earth and elsewhere|Neel Patel|March 17, 2021|MIT Technology Review
Finally, we used our fulgurite and other published fulgurite studies to estimate of how much schreibersite, or similar forms of phosphorus, would have been made available by lightning strikes.
Origin of Life: Lightning Strikes May Have Provided Missing Ingredient for Earth’s First Organisms|Benjamin Hess|March 17, 2021|Singularity Hub

By firing lasers, X-rays and electrons at the fulgurite and observing how those beams interacted with the material, the researchers were able to probe its composition.
Phosphorus for Earth’s earliest life may have been forged by lightning|Maria Temming|March 16, 2021|Science News
This fulgurite, which is extremely light, measures six centimetres in length.
Thunder and Lightning|Camille Flammarion

British Dictionary definitions for fulgurite

fulgurite

/ (ˈfʌlɡjʊˌraɪt) /

noun

a tube of glassy mineral matter found in sand and rock, formed by the action of lightning

Word Origin for fulgurite

C19: from Latin fulgur lightning

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Scientific definitions for fulgurite

fulgurite

[ ful′gyə-rīt′, -gə- ]

A slender, usually tubular body of glassy rock produced by lightning striking and then fusing dry sandy soil.