I Found a Rock

Of course your laughing after reading the title but being out on the landscape working always provides opportunities to find something new.  While driving down the entrance road on the estate the other day I noticed some new burrows along the drive, stopping to investigate I noticed a strange stone lying in the excavated dirt pile next to an entrance.  Perhaps 2" long and about 3/8" in diameter this elongated piece at first resembled a segment of root.  Upon picking it up I noticed it was stone not wood, with a crusty like exterior but a very fine grained interior.  There appeared to be a central core partially hollow at both ends.  Stumped as to its identity I put it away and went on working.  Later I started searching for a possible identity to this unusual find and came across descriptions of fulgurite or fused sand and dirt from a cloud to ground lightning strike.  The area does see many lightning strikes especially during the monsoon season and of course there is the New Mexico Lightning Field, so perhaps this is a piece of petrified lightning.  It is interesting to note that the bulk of the interior is very fine grained while the outside layer is much courser as if the interior material fused at a much higher temperature which decreased further out from the center.  Just one more reminder to keep ones eyes open when out on the landscape.  Oh, I still have not figured out what animal dug the burrows along the fence line.

Fulgurite specimen from the Painted Pony Resort

Cross sectional view of the fulgurite