Many high-pressure, high-temperature materials have been observed in fulgurites. Many of these minerals and compounds are also known to be formed in extreme environments such as nuclear weapon tests, hypervelocity impacts, and interstellar space. Shocked quartz was first described in fulgurites in 1980. Other materials, including highly reduced silicon-metal alloys (silicides), the fullerene allotropes C (buckminsterfullerenes) and C, as well as high-pressure polymorphs of SiO, have since been identified in fulgurites.
Reduced phosphides have been identified in fulgurites, in the form of schreibersite ( and ), and titanium(III) phosphide. These reduced compounds are otherwise rare on Earth due to the presence of oxygen in Earth's atmosphere, which creates oxidizing surface conditions.