Libyan Desert Glass

Item Description

This material is a naturally occuring glass with an unkonwn origion. Scientists have debated about where the material originated and many theories have been floating through the scientific community. For a long time, it was suspected that the material is formed from meteorites, and research has linked the material to the features that are associated with impact glass formation such as, such as the breakdown of Zircon along with Quartz that has been vaporized, plus meteoritic metals and an impact crater. It has been proposed by some geologists that the glass it not a result of impact melt ejecta, but rather has properties of radiative melting from large meteoric aerial explosions. Meaning that if this were ture, this Libyan Desert Glass would be chemcially similar or possibly identical to the famous "Trinitite" that was created on the desert floor after the Trinity plutonium nuclear bomb test on July 16, 1945, near Alamogordo, New Mexico. In the case of the Trinitite, it was theorized by was theorized by scientist Robert Hermes and independent investigator William Strickfaden of the Los Alamos National Laboratory that much of this material was actually created by particles of sand where were pulled into the exploding fireball itsellf and then came back to the earth's surface as a liquid which solidified to create the natural glass. Whatever the origin, the Libyan Desert Glass is certainly interesting material. For a side note, the formation of the material from Libya has been dated back to 26 million years ago, and was used shaped (knapped) during the Pleistocene to create tools. This particular piece is a loose "raw" specimen of this hard to find material and has nearly eye clean clarity. A great buy for anybody interested in this beautiful golden yellow color natural glass.