Question

photo 452   We are cutting down dead Maple trees in my yard ~ lightning appears to be the killing factor.  
I am wondering what has caused the thin black lines that look like someone took a sharpie and drew on the inside of the tree.
Do you know what caused this?

Answer
Dear Mary, I believed I knew what had happened to your tree when you described it, but I still looked at several hundred photos just to be sure.  These black lines are undoubtedly trace scars from the lightning. Lightning can behave in strange and unpredictable ways.  Sometimes it will splinter a tree, sometimes it strips the bark off, or knocks off limbs, and sometimes the strike leaves the tree almost completely intact.  I once was looking out the window during a bad lightning storm and I saw a large pine tree get hit by lightning.  The tree glowed red for several seconds.  The next day I observed patches of bark had been blasted off and were lying up to ten feet away from the tree.  In addition the tree made a "crackling" noise for months.  The inside of that tree probably resembled your maple.  I didn't discount the possibility of some insect making those scars, but I seriously doubt it, since they appear too fine for any insects known to bore into maples.  This is a very interesting piece of wood because of the scars in it, so I hope you saved some for a conversation piece.  Thank you for your interesting question.  Melissa