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A local family finds fulgurite and plans to donate the "fossilized lightning" to several schools and universities in Oklahoma.

Gary Carter of Dewey says he was building a fence with his fiancé, Rachel Peck, and daughter, Addyson Divall, on property they own in Drumright when a thunderstorm rolled through the area. Carter says they noticed lightning had struck a telephone pole close to the fence. He says they ended up digging around the pole after the storm when they unearthed the fulgurite.

Pictured left to right: Gary Carter, Addyson Divall, Rachel Peck, each hold a display case soon to be donated to public schools in the area.

Peck says they didn't know what they had found until they took it to area experts to examine. She says they didn't think much of it at first, but soon learned these huge chunks of fulgurite were quite rare.

Fulgurites (pictured right) are natural tubes, clumps, or masses of sintered, vitrified and/or fused soil, sand, rock, organic debris and other sediments that sometimes form when lightning discharges into the ground. Fulgurites are classified as a variety of the mineraloid lechatelierite. They have no fixed composition because their chemical composition is determined by the physical and chemical properties of whatever material is being struck by lightning.

Carter says they uncovered four or five large pieces, with two of them being around the size of his arm. He says whatever else they collected were fragments from these large pieces of fulgurite.

Divall, an 8th grader at Cleveland Public Schools, would be the recipient of the fulgurite, but she decided to donate them to learning institutions instead of keeping them to herself. She says she wants other people to admire the fulgurite and learn more about it.

The Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma was gifted one fulgurite piece. Divall (pictured left) donated fulgurite to Oklahoma State University's Geology Department, too. She even plans on giving displays of fulgurite shards to public schools in Bartlesville, Cleveland and Dewey.

A piece of copper wire was attached to the telephone pole that was struck by lightning. Carter notes that the lightning heated the copper up so much that it embedded the copper into the sand. He says it is unique to see the copper become part of the fulgurite.

Carter says they don't chase lightning to find rare pieces of fulgurite. He says they just so happened to be at the right place at the right time for a moment that will stick with them for life.

Both Carter and Peck are proud of this moment because it gives their daughter a cool moment to talk about. They say their daughter has had the opportunity to meet a lot of people.

To see the Deed of Gift from the Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural History at the University of Oklahoma to Dival, click here.

Photo courtesy: Gary Carter