The failure of quartz single crystals and piezoelectric ceramics under the action of ≈80-ns-wide stress pulses is experimentally investigated. Spalling-induced microfailures in the piezoelectrics are found to produce electromagnetic pulses 2-10 ns wide. The occurrences of the electromagnetic radiation and the microfailures correlate. The study of the structure of these electromagnetic pulses in combination with fractography data may gain much real-time information on the failure of brittle materials under impact loads.