Science Porn

[pocaracas]

It's called a fulgurite. When lightning strikes the sand it melts it into glass and the glass takes on the shape of the lightning:

That picture has been debunked.   The fact that the branching pattern doesn't radiate in all directions, but seem to preferentially grow upwards, should raise suspicion about whether that, whatever it is, actually followed the track of current from a lightning bolt dissipating in sand.

Oh... wow.... you're right.
I need to start checking everything for bunkness... damn interwebz!

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What the image really shows is a piece of driftwood with sand piled on top of it.

The structure was created and photographed by a guy who goes by the name "Sandcastle Matt" on his Flickr photostream.

He described the structure as "the biggest sandcastle I've ever made." The viral photo showed less than half of it. Here's the full thing:

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Here's a proper fulgurite: