• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Crack Open A Thunder Egg For A Beautiful Surprise (That You Can’t Eat)

April 2, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

Welcome to the wonderful world of thunder eggs. They might look plain from the outside, but can be cut and polished to reveal a whole range of colors and crystals within, and are popular with the rock collecting community. 

Thunder eggs, also known as lithophysae, are spherical objects formed in silica-rich volcanic rock, often a rock called rhyolite. 

Advertisement

The name “thunder egg” is said to originate from Native American folklore that says these rounded rocks were the eggs of the mythical thunderbirds that created thunder and lightning during storms, hence the name. Other legends suggest that thunder eggs were thrown during thunderstorms by warring “thunder spirits” who lived on Mount Jefferson and Mount Hood.              

All thunder eggs start life as volcanic lava. As this lava cools, material is trapped around gas bubbles. Over time, these gas bubbles crack and allow the gas to escape, leaving behind a hollow cavity. Silica and other minerals including feldspar from volcanic ash can be deposited in this cavity, hardening to deposit near solid cores of chalcedony or agate or quartz crystals which form the core of a thunder egg. The minerals often grow outwards from the center of the cavity, forming radiating structures called spherulites.

Reddish brown circle rock with a star shaped white fill on the inside. Polished and quite shiny.

The hollow cavity is filled with crystal structures or layers.

Image Credit: Wirestock Creators/Shutterstock

Some thunder eggs can be identified based on their crystal composition and the naturally occurring minerals in the area. For instance, the Del Norte Area in Colorado is known for thunder eggs containing plume and moss agate. 

There is some confusion surrounding the difference between geodes and thunder eggs. While some suggest geodes are any rock with a void inside and thunder eggs are solid, some suggest that thunder eggs are different because they were formed only by lava flow while geodes can be formed in many different ways.  

Advertisement

Thunder eggs can be found all over the world. The most common place to find thunder eggs in the USA is Oregon, where thunder eggs have been the state rock since 1965. 

All “explainer” articles are confirmed by fact checkers to be correct at time of publishing. Text, images, and links may be edited, removed, or added to at a later date to keep information current.  

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. China’s Aug export growth unexpectedly picks up speed, imports solidly up
  2. Bolivian president calls for global debt relief for poor countries
  3. Soccer-Barca boss Koeman grateful for vote of confidence
  4. The Dark Reason Why You Never See Narwhals In An Aquarium

Source Link: Crack Open A Thunder Egg For A Beautiful Surprise (That You Can't Eat)

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The Oldest Stalagmite Ever Dated Was Found In Oklahoma Rocks, Dating Back 289 Million Years
  • 2024’s Great American Eclipse Made Some Birds Behave In Surprising Ways, But Not All Were Fooled
  • “Carter Catastrophe”: The Math Equation That Predicts The End Of Humanity
  • Why Is There No Nobel Prize For Mathematics?
  • These Are The Only Animals Known To Incubate Eggs In Their Stomachs And Give “Birth” Out Their Mouths
  • Constipated? This One Fruit Could Help, Says First-Ever Evidence-Led Diet Guidance
  • NGC 2775: This Galaxy Breaks The Rules Of “Galactic Evolution” And Baffles Astronomers
  • Meet The “Four-Eyed” Hirola, The World’s Most Endangered Antelope With Fewer Than 500 Left
  • The Bizarre 1997 Experiment That Made A Frog Levitate
  • There’s A Very Good Reason Why October 1582 On Your Phone Is Missing 10 Days
  • Skynet-1A: Military Spacecraft Launched 56 Years Ago Has Been Moved By Persons Unknown
  • There’s A Simple Solution To Helping Avoid Erectile Dysfunction (But You’re Not Going To Like It)
  • Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS May Be 10 Billion Years Old, This Rare Spider Is Half-Female, Half-Male Split Down The Middle, And Much More This Week
  • Why Do Trains Not Have Seatbelts? It’s Probably Not What You Think
  • World’s Driest Hot Desert Just Burst Into A Rare And Fleeting Desert Bloom
  • Theoretical Dark Matter Infernos Could Melt The Earth’s Core, Turning It Liquid
  • North America’s Largest Mammal Once Numbered 60 Million – Then Humans Nearly Drove It To Extinction
  • North America’s Largest Ever Land Animal Was A 21-Meter-Long Titan
  • A Two-Headed Fossil, 50/50 Spider, And World-First Butt Drag
  • Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS Is Losing Buckets Of Water Every Second – And It’s Got Cyanide
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version