Lightning strike creates new phosphorus material found on Earth for the first time

Pasek noted the discovery in his recent study published in Communications Earth & Environment. The study examines how high-energy events can trigger distinct chemical reactions, which in turn can result in new material, "one that is transitional between space minerals and minerals found on Earth," according to a press release.

"When lightning strikes a tree, the ground typically explodes out and the surrounding grass dies, forming a scar and sending electric discharge through nearby rock, soil, and sand, forming fulgurites, also known as 'fossilized lightning'," Pasek said.

An undiscovered colorful, crystal-like matter was found inside the fulgurite

The team investigated unique minerals that contained phosphorus, with a special focus on those formed by lightning.

"It’s important to understand how much energy lightning has because then we know how much damage a lightning strike can cause 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 rock, it can certainly melt people too."

According to Pasek, iron can "accumulate" and "encrust" tree roots, especially in wet environments. In this case, the lightning strike combusted the iron on the tree roots and the naturally occurring carbon in the tree. The elements created a fulgurite.

And inside the fulgurite lay an undiscovered colorful, crystal-like matter.

Another interesting event to be noted is that the researchers' attempts to remake the material in a lab were unsuccessful. It indicated that the material probably forms quickly under precise conditions and, if heated too long, will turn into the mineral found in meteorites.

"Previous researchers indicate that lightning reduction of phosphate to have been a widespread phenomenon on the early Earth," Co-principal investigator Tian Feng, a graduate of USF’s geology program, said. "However, there is an environmental phosphate reservoir issue in Earth that these solid phosphite materials are hard to restore."

Pasek and Bindi now plan to further investigate the material to figure out if it can be officially declared a mineral.

The study was published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment.

Study Abstract:

Phosphate minerals such as those in the apatite group tend to be the dominant forms of phosphorus in minerals on the Earth’s surface. Phosphate can be reduced to phosphides during high-energy events, such as lightning and impacts. Here we show that, in addition to formation of metal phosphides, a new compound was formed by lightning in a fulgurite from New Port Richey, Florida, USA. A calcium phosphite material, ideally CaHPO3, was found in spherules mainly consisting of iron silicides that formed by lightning-induced fusion of sand around a tree root. This phosphite material bears a phosphorus oxidation state intermediate of that of phosphides and phosphates in a geologic sample and implicates phosphites as being potentially relevant to other high-energy events where phosphorus may partially change its redox state, and material similar to this phosphite may also be the source of phosphite that makes up part of the phosphorus biogeochemical cycle.