Glass Shard Identification

[Whitemountainexplorer]

Fairly recently I was hiking a mountain in Montana and came across these mysterious “glass” shards that appeared to be completely random in shape and some having rock minerals and possibly ash trapped within the “glass”. I’m curious if anyone can help me identify these and figure out what happened and how they were created.

Thanks so much

Whitemountainexplorer

[Steve Herschbach]

Looks like glass melted in a fire to me.

[Whitemountainexplorer]

19 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Looks like glass melted in a fire to me.

It was found on a mountain top at around 7,000 feet in Montana. There were hundreds of pieces like this. When shinning a black light on them some pieces have green glows and others have a pink glow. I brought them to a rock and mineral store and they were stumped. Best guess was Fulgurite

[Steve Herschbach]

Location does not exclude glass. Hunters and prospectors have been everywhere the last couple hundred years. I have seen stuff just like it in high Sierra burn areas in California and elsewhere, even old campfire sites. Fulgerite though, maybe.

[Whitemountainexplorer]

17 minutes ago, Steve Herschbach said:

Location does not exclude glass. Hunters and prospectors have been everywhere the last couple hundred years. I have seen stuff just like it in high Sierra burn areas in California and elsewhere, even old campfire sites. Fulgerite though, maybe.

Interesting, there was a fire watch tower on the summit at one point.

these pieces have trapped gas bubbles within them and a few of them even have what I believe to be Carbon fossilized inside them.

[Steve Herschbach]

52 minutes ago, Whitemountainexplorer said:

these pieces have trapped gas bubbles within them and a few of them even have what I believe to be Carbon fossilized inside them.

That's exactly what you see in fire melted glass also, bubbles and enclosed carbon, bits of dirt, etc.

[okara gold]

My guess is campfire melted glass. There is a beach that I hunt once in a while where people have bonfires and throw their bottles in the fire. What is left is a mess of melted and chunked glass blobs with sand granules, ash and debris fused into it. Quite similar to yours.