[meteorite-list] Tektite Origin

From: bernd.pauli_at_paulinet.de <bernd.pauli_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon Mar 28 05:19:38 2005
Message-ID: <DIIE.00000038000035E7_at_paulinet.de>

Leif J. Robinson (2005) 50 & 25 years
ago (Sky & Telescope, May 2005, p. 20):

MAY 1955 - Mysterious Globs: Tektites are glassy objects found
in about a dozen scattered large areas of the earth's surface,
and have a chemical composition remarkably like that of clayey
sediments ... Harold Urey, University of Chicago, reviews previous
lunar and meteoritic hypotheses [for their origin], and finds them
all wanting ... The tektites, he concludes, are to be regarded as
terrestrial in origin ... He asks, 'Could [an asteroid], falling
in a land area, have initiated a large [volcanic] event ... ? It
does seem that such objects might be capable of producing large
numbers of small glass objects from sedimentary materials and
of distributing them over wide areas.'

Urey's explanation is still favored today.


Best Easter Monday
morning wishes,

Bernd
Received on Mon 28 Mar 2005 05:19:35 AM PST