"Sweet Home Alabama" did get something right — when super hot lightning (at least 1,800 degrees Celsius/3,272 degrees Fahrenheit) hits sandy beaches high in silica or quartz, it fuses the sand into silica glass beneath the ground. That means you can actually dig up petrified lightning if you know where to look. The movie portrays these glass sculptures as root-like, but fulgurites, as the glass art is called, actually look more like rocky tubes than glass tree roots. They're typically short and brittle. As for the viral photo? It's not a fulgurite — it's a piece of driftwood covered in drips of wet sand by an artist named Sandcastle Matt. Go figure.

Before you plunge into the sand, know that this is more of an anomaly than something lightning does all the time, and it takes careful excavation to unearth a fulgurite without crumbling it. Still, though it's even more rare, there's a chance that you won't have to dig the tubes up at all. Glass can withstand erosion, so you might happen upon a piece of petrified lightning above ground. Be sure to let us know if you do!