Hypervelocity impacts can produce features in zircon that are not normally produced by endogenic processes. However, lightning can also induce extreme pressure–temperature excursions, and its effect on zircon has not been studied. With the aim to recognise features that form in response to extreme pressure–temperature excursions but are not unique to hypervelocity impacts, we imaged and undertook microstructural characterization of zircon in a fulgurite (a tubular body of glass and fused clasts that formed in response to a lightning strike). We document zircon with granular ZrO₂ and rims of vermicular ZrO₂, features which vary in abundance with increasing distance from the fulgurite’s central void. This indicates that these features formed in response to the lightning strike. Zircon dissociation to ZrO₂ and SiO₂ is a high-temperature, relatively low-pressure phenomenon, consistent with previous suggestions that lightning strikes involve extreme temperatures as well as pressures greater than those usually generated in Earth’s crust but rarely > 10 GPa. The rims of monoclinic ZrO₂ record crystallographic evidence for precursor cubic ZrO₂, demonstrating that cubic ZrO₂ is not unique to hypervelocity impacts. Given the likelihood that this fulgurite experienced pressures of, at most, a few GPa, evidence for cubic ZrO₂ indicates peak temperatures > 2000 °C.

超高速撞击会在锆石中产生通常不是由内生过程产生的特征。但是，雷电也会引起极端的压力-温度偏移，因此尚未研究其对锆石的影响。为了识别响应极端压力-温度偏移而形成的特征，但不是超高速冲击所独有的特征，我们成像并进行了锆石微晶结构表征，该锆石为全晶石（一种管状玻璃体，由熔解的熔岩形成，其响应于雷击）。我们记录了具有颗粒状ZrO ₂和蠕虫状ZrO ₂边缘的锆石，这些特征随着距金银石中央空隙的距离增加而变化。这表明这些特征是响应雷击而形成的。锆石解离为ZrO ₂和SiO ₂是一种高温，相对低压的现象，这与以前的建议一致，即雷击涉及极端温度以及比地壳中通常产生的压力更高的压力，但很少> 10 GPa。单斜ZrO ₂的边缘记录了前体立方ZrO _2的晶体学证据，表明该立方ZrO ₂对于超高速冲击并不是唯一的。考虑到这种辉石最多可能承受几GPa的压力，立方ZrO _2的证据表明峰值温度> 2000°C。