The name for the glass 'finger's you found in the area the lightening bolt impacted is 'fulgurites'. Formed by melting of sand and similar minerals by lightening strikes.
Got any pics of those, or the glass bead things you found? would be quite good to see those. The most typical shape is a hollow tube of fused glass and stone, but they sometimes form other more intricate structures. It could be worth digging in the crater too, as the bolt usually takes a path down some distance into the earth, vaporising or fusing things on its way.
Yes, I know what fulgurites are and how they are formed and how cool they are, etc, etc. I found buttloads of them the next day. I kept several really large ones, but you have to realize, this was thirty five years ago. The largest one I dug up was over three feet long and almost four inches in diameter. (it was the color of gold, but almost clear) It weighed over forty pounds! I gave most of them away to various people, but one I gave to a prof from UT.
The second day after the strike, when I went back to find more, there was a University Of Texas professor and his class on a field trip digging everything up.
They had been all over the place doing research. Apparently, there were other people watching the same thing I was watching, but not nearly as close on that night.
I talked a bit to a few people that day and decided to give them the big one I had found on the day after the strike. As far as I know, it is one of the largest they have ever found and it is still in the custody of the UT research team.
All the smaller ones I found were only wrist sized, about four or five inches long, and over time and after becoming tired of seeing them on top of my speakers, I gave them away.
