When lightning strikes the sand, it makes 'fulgurite'. You have to check out the pictures!
Before science, the flash of lighting that followed a crack of thunder was though to be the will of Greek gods or a violent outcropping of animism. Now we know a bit more about lightning.
We know that it can be hotter than the surface of our Sun; we know that it can absolutely strike in the same place twice; and we know that when it hits sand, it can create wonderful art.
Specifically, fulgurite is the result of the quartz sand in the ground fusing together after being charged by lightning. It takes temperatures of 1800 degrees Celsius to turn the sand into fulgurite. Lightning is hot enough to make this happen, but the creation of fulgurite is still very rare.
