2023-04-18 14:00:27
A lightning strike on a tree near Tampa, Florida, led to the formation of a new phosphorous material in a rock that, for the first time, occurs in solid form on Earth.
“We have never seen this material occur naturally on Earth; similar minerals can be found in meteorites and in space, but we have never seen this exact material anywhere,” said University of South Florida geoscientist Matthew Pasek.
In a recent study published in Communications Earth & EnvironmentPasek examines how high-energy events such as lightning can cause unique chemical reactions and, in this case, result in a new material, one that is a transition between space minerals and minerals found on earth.
“When lightning strikes a tree, the ground typically explodes and the surrounding grass dies, scarring and sending an electrical discharge through nearby rock, soil and sand, forming fulgurites, also known as ‘fossilized lightning.’ Pasek said in a statement.
“Lightning Scar”
When residents of the area discovered the ‘lightning scar’, they found a fulgurite and decided to sell it, assuming it had value. Pasek bought it and later began a collaboration with Luca Bindi, a professor of mineralogy and crystallography at the University of Florence in Italy.
Together, the team set out to investigate unusual minerals containing the element phosphorus, especially those formed by lightning, to better understand high-energy phenomena.
“It’s important to understand how much energy lightning has because then we know how much damage lightning can do on average and how dangerous it is,” Pasek said. “Florida is the lightning capital of the world and lightning safety is important – if lightning is strong enough to melt rocks, it certainly can melt people too.”
In humid environments, such as in Florida, Pasek says iron often builds up and embeds itself in tree roots. In this case, the lightning not only burned iron from the roots of the tree, but also carbon found naturally in the tree. The two elements gave rise to a chemical reaction that created a fulgurite that looked like a metal “balloon.”
Within the fulgurite, a colorful, crystalline matter revealed material never before discovered.
Co-lead investigator Tian Feng, a graduate of USF’s geology program, tried to remake the material in a lab. The experiment was unsuccessful and indicates that the material likely forms rapidly under the right conditions and, if heated too much, will turn into the mineral found in meteorites.
“Previous researchers indicate that phosphate reduction by lightning has been a widespread phenomenon on the early Earth,” Feng said. “However, there is an environmental phosphite deposit problem on Earth that these solid phosphite materials are difficult to restore.”
Feng says this research may reveal that other forms of reduced minerals are plausible and many might have been important in the development of life on Earth.
According to Pasek, it is unlikely that this material might be mined for uses similar to other phosphates, such as fertilizers, given the rarity of its natural occurrence. However, Pasek and Bindi plan to further investigate the material to determine if it might be officially declared as a mineral and raise more awareness among the scientific community.
1681826799
#lightning #strike #produced #mineral #characteristic #meteorites #unprecedented #Earth
