Inside towering clouds of volcanic ash, stunning lightning storms can create tiny crystal balls, a new study reports. Researchers recently discovered smooth glass spheres in ash from explosive ...

By noting a glass particle’s shape, they can determine, the specific lightning conditions of any given eruption. Volcanic lightning strikes vary in temperature and duration. So as a result, the ...

The word—based on the Latin world for thunderbolt—refers to a hollow glass tube formed when lightning strikes soil, silica, sand or even rock.

But lightning within the ash cloud can heat the air to 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit (30,000 degrees Celsius) for a few millionths of a second, melting the glass particles.