[meteorite-list] Impact Glass from Barringer Crater?

From: Ted Bunch <tbear1_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2013 15:16:51 -0700
Message-ID: <523E1AD3.1010706_at_cableone.net>

Mike - Impact melt glass at Meteor Crater is not pretty green or any
other pretty color, but dark "melt beads", dark glassy impactites, and
the reddish brown glass that is common in typical oxidized
impactites.The spherules are tiny.

Go to: D. A. Kring, ?Guidebook to the Geology of the Barringer
(Meteorite) Crater, Arizona?. LPI Contribution No 1355 (2007) -
downloadable.

Has just about anything you want to know about Meteor Crater...

Ted


On 9/21/13 1:20 PM, Mike Fiedler wrote:
> I finally got myself a copy of Nininger's Find a Falling Star. It is
> a great read, and insight into how doggedly he pursued his interests
> against a steady stream of naysayers among those who might have been
> inspired.
>
> My immediate interest, is the passage on page 180, in which he
> described a form of impact glass appearing in a variety of shapes,
> including 'tear-shaped'. Unlike the typical solid glass Indochinite,
> these seem to have encased a more non-homogenized interior, which
> Nininger describes as 'spongy'. (In a sense of pourous, not flexible
> or plastic) Here's a couple paragraphs from the book:
>
> {begin quote}
> Spurred on by discovery of the little metallic spheroids, I searched
> and searched everywhere on all sides of the crater, on the rim and on
> the plain beyond, examining everything more critically than ever
> before, and one day made an even more exciting find.
>
> I had stopped to examine a gravel pit dug into the crater rim by the
> state highway commission. I found a few crushed bits of
> yellow-green-brown slag; some showed a gray outer crust. I looked for
> more, and soon picked up a small tear-shaped piece. It appeared the
> same color as the light gray dust and gravel among which it lay, but
> the rockhound's licking test revealed a dark greenish-gray color under
> the dust. A canteenful of water dashed onto the gravel made it easier
> to identify a number of such small "bombs" of various shapes and
> sizes. All of these, when broken, were seen to be of a spongy
> structure, but composed of brittle, glassy material. When I ground the
> bits of slag on a sheet of carborundum cloth from my supplies in the
> trunk of my car, and then held them under a pocket lens, they showed
> small imbedded metallic particles, bright as chrome steel.
>
> As I drove hurriedly back to the museum on Highway 66 to make a nickel
> test, I puzzled over various questions. Could these be mere volcanic
> cinders? Could lava fragments carry such imbedded metallic particles?
> If these indeed were bomblets created by the impact of the meteorite,
> why had they never before been discovered?
> {end Quote}
>
> In looking for additional info, I came across this:
> http://www.impact-structures.com/2011/12/meteor-crater-arizona-discovery-of-impact-glass-spherules/
> Not quite the same thing, but certainly intriguing! This would go
> well along side my Wabar Pearls and Chicxulub spherules from Dogie
> Creek, Wyoming.
>
> I have searched some of the Tektite web sites hoping to find a source
> for a specimen of the glass Nininger describes. I am coming up dry.
> Does Nininger's material exist on the market? What is it called?
>
> Any likelihood of tracking down those Barringer Crater spherules?
>
> Any clarification will be appreciated.
>
> Mike
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Received on Sat 21 Sep 2013 06:16:51 PM PDT