Thunderstruck! A quasicrystal made by lightning

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25250/thescbr.brk741

Keywords:

Quasicrystals, electrical discharge, lightning strike, minerals, meteorites

Abstract

A material with characteristics between crystal and glass has been accidentally created by an electrical discharge (likely a lightning strike) in the Sand Hills of Nebraska. The material is a quasicrystal with 12-fold symmetry, impossible for ordinary crystals. Transient high-pressure and high-temperature conditions seem to ease the formation of quasicrystals in nature.

Author Biography

Luca Bindi, University of Florence

Full Professor

Original article reference

Bindi, L., Pasek, M. A., Ma, C., Hu, J., Cheng, G., Yao, N., Asimow, P. D., & Steinhardt, P. J. (2023). Electrical discharge triggers quasicrystal formation in an eolian dune. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(1). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2215484119

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Published

2023-09-06

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 3 (2023): TheScienceBreaker

Section

Earth & Space

License

Some rights reserved 2023 Luca Bindi

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.