While hiking through Yosemite National Park we pass by this hollowed out tree. I wondered out loud what could have done this to a tree. My youngest brother, graduate of Stanford Engineering, Physics and Material Sciences immediately pipes in, “Lighting.”
But of course, because he is so full of random information, he just has to continue. For the next ten minutes, we stand in front of this true as he explains how the intense heat and energy of a lightning strike causes the sap in trees to expand so much that it literally splits from the inside out and becomes hollowed.
I never knew that.
Now I know.
I’ve also learned about catastrophic failures when things break, and different kinds of glass cracks. Way to go for having a walking encyclopedia like my brother.
Stop and Stare 