airburst

These fiery events — known as airbursts — are dramatic, generating massive amounts of heat and strong winds.

Because airbursts rarely occur in the same place twice, the evidence led some researchers to suggest that the glass formed during several massive grass fires.

The desert’s glass corridor, however, is kilometers away from the closest volcano, suggesting the glass formed in a different type of heating event, such as an airburst.

In 1908, an airburst from an asteroid or comet over a remote part of Russia flattened trees and generated a shock wave that knocked people off their feet hundreds of kilometers away.