"Quercus Fulminatus" - the Lightning Oak

Found in forest: One mature white oak, approximately 24" at base. Fully water-saturated by early spring rains and rising sap, just starting to bloom. If the question is "How do you make an 80-foot-tall oak tree explode?" then the answer is "Just add lightning."

Leftmost frame: The only remaining upright portion of the tree, heartwood to taproot. The surrounding soil appeared to have been boiled. Several large sandstone boulders originally near the base of the tree were displaced 10-25 feet from the crater.

Center frame: Largest remaining portions of the tree. Remnants of the trunk and several branches. Fragments - mostly shredded - ranging in size from 10-12 feet long to matchsticks littered the forest floor in a near-100-foot radius from the remaining stump.

Rightmost frame: Bark fragment, discovered with neatly placed partial oak blossom beneath. A weirdly delicate arrangement, alongside the display of brute force.

One finds the most amazing things in the woods...