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Tektite
Tektites () are gravel-sized bodies composed of black, green, brown or grey natural glass formed from terrestrial debris ejected during meteorite impacts. The term was coined by Austrian geologist Franz Eduard Suess (1867–1941), son of Eduard Suess. They generally range in size from millimetres to centimetres. Millimetre-scale tektites are known as microtektites.French, B. M. (1998) ''Traces of Catastrophe: A Handbook of Shock-Metamorphic Effects in Terrestrial Meteorite Impact Structures.'' LPI Contribution No. 954. Lunar and Planetary Institute, Houston, Texas. 120 pp.McCall, G. J. H. (2001) ''Tektites in the Geological Record: Showers of Glass from the Sky.'' The Geological Society Publishing House, Bath, United Kingdom. 256 pp. Montanari, A., and C. Koeberl (2000) ''Impact Stratigraphy. The Italian Record.'' Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences Series no. 93. Springer-Verlag, New York, New York. 364 pp. Tektites are characterized by: # a fairly homogeneous composition # an ex ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lechatelierite
Lechatelierite is silica glass, amorphous SiO2, non-crystalline mineraloid. It is named for Henry Louis Le Chatelier. Structure Lechatelierite is a mineraloid as it does not have a crystal structure. Although not a true mineral, it is often classified in the quartz mineral group. Formation One common way in which lechatelierite forms naturally is by very-high-temperature melting of quartz sand during a lightning strike. The result is an irregular, branching, often foamy hollow tube of silica glass called a fulgurite. Not all fulgurites are lechatelierite; the original sand must be nearly pure silica. Lechatelierite also forms as the result of high pressure shock metamorphism during meteorite impact cratering and is a common component of a type of glassy ejecta called tektites. Most tektites are blobs of impure glassy material, but tektites from the Sahara Desert in Libya and Egypt, known as '' Libyan desert glass'', are composed of almost pure silica that is almost pure lech ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Impact Event
An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal effect. When large objects impact terrestrial planets such as the Earth, there can be significant physical and Biosphere, biospheric consequences, as the impacting body is usually traveling at several kilometres per second (km/s), with a minimum impact speed of 11.2 km/s (7.0 mi/s) for bodies striking Earth. Atmosphere, While planetary atmospheres can mitigate some of these impacts through the effects of atmospheric entry, many large bodies retain sufficient energy to reach the surface and cause substantial damage. This results in the formation of Impact crater, impact craters and Impact structure, structures, shaping the dominant landforms found across various types of solid objects found in the Solar System. Their prevalence and ubiquity pres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Strewn Field
A strewn field is the area where meteorites from a single meteorite fall, fall are dispersed. It is also often used for the area containing tektite, tektites produced by a large meteorite impact.''Tektites in the geological record: showers of glass from the sky''. Gerald Joseph Home McCall. Geological Society of London, 2001page 10/ref> Formation There are two strewnfield formation mechanisms: # Mid-air fragmentation: when a large meteoroid enters the atmosphere it often fragments into many pieces before touching the ground due to thermal shock. This mid-air explosion disperses material over a large oval-shaped area. The long axis of this oval is along the flight path of the meteoroid. When multiple-explosions occur, the material can be found in several overlapping ovals. # Impact fragmentation: when there is almost no mid-air fragmentation the fragmentation can occur upon impact. In this case the strewnfield shape can be different, usually circular. Examples include the strewn fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meteorite
A meteorite is a rock (geology), rock that originated in outer space and has fallen to the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the original object enters the atmosphere, various factors such as friction, pressure, and chemical interactions with the atmospheric gases cause it to heat up and radiate energy. It then becomes a meteor and forms a Meteoroid#Fireball, fireball, also known as a shooting star; astronomers call the brightest examples "Bolide#Astronomy, bolides". Once it settles on the larger body's surface, the meteor becomes a meteorite. Meteorites vary greatly in size. For geologists, a bolide is a meteorite large enough to create an impact crater. Meteorites that are recovered after being observed as they transit the atmosphere and impact event, impact Earth are called meteorite falls. All others are known as meteorite finds. Meteorites have traditionally been divided into three broad categories: stony meteorites that are rocks, mainly composed of sil ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Franz Eduard Suess
Eduard Suess (; 20 August 1831 – 26 April 1914) was an Austrian geologist and an expert on the geography of the Alps. He is responsible for hypothesising two major former geographical features, the supercontinent Gondwana (proposed in 1861) and the Tethys Ocean. Biography Eduard Suess was born on 20 August 1831 in London, England, the oldest son of Adolph Heinrich Suess, a Lutheran Saxon merchant, and mother Eleonore Friederike Zdekauer. Adolph Heinrich Suess was born on 11 March 1797 in Saxony and died on 24 May 1862 in Vienna; Eleonore Friederike Zdekauer was born in Prague, now part of the Czech Republic, which once belonged to the Holy Roman Empire and the Austrian Empire. When Eduard Suess was an infant, his family relocated to Prague, and then to Vienna when he was 14. He became interested in geology at a young age. At the age of 19, while working as an assistant at the Hofmuseum in Vienna, he published his first paper—on the geology of Carlsbad (now Karlovy Vary in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Baddeleyite
Baddeleyite is a rare zirconium oxide mineral (ZrO2 or zirconia), occurring in a variety of monoclinic prismatic crystal forms. It is transparent to translucent, has high Index of refraction, indices of refraction, and ranges from colorless to yellow, green, and dark brown. See etymology Baddeleyite#Origin of the name, below. Baddeleyite is a refractory mineral, with a melting point of 2700 °C. Hafnium is a substituting ''impurity'' and may be present in quantities ranging from 0.1 to several percent. It can be found in igneous rocks containing potassium feldspar and plagioclase. Baddeleyite is commonly not found with zircon (ZrSiO4), because it forms in silica-undersaturated rocks, such as mafic rocks. This is because, when silica is free in the system (silica-saturated/oversaturated), zircon is the dominating phase, not baddeleyite. It belongs to the Monoclinic crystal system, monoclinic-prismatic class, of the P21/c crystal system. It has been used for geochronology. Geo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coesite
Coesite () is a form (polymorphism (materials science), polymorph) of silicon dioxide (silicon, Sioxide, O2) that is formed when very high pressure (2–3 gigapascals), and moderately high temperature (), are applied to quartz. Coesite was first synthesized by Loring Coes, Jr., a chemist at the Norton Company, in 1953. The word ''coesite'' is pronounced as "Coze-ite", after chemist Loring Coes, Jr. Occurrences In 1960, a natural occurrence of coesite was reported by Edward C. T. Chao, in collaboration with Eugene Shoemaker, from Barringer Crater, in Arizona, US, which was evidence that the crater must have been formed by an impact. After this report, the presence of coesite in unmetamorphosed rocks was taken as evidence of a meteorite impact event or of an atomic bomb explosion. It was not expected that coesite would survive in high pressure metamorphic rocks. In metamorphic rocks, coesite was initially described in eclogite xenoliths from the mantle (geology), mantle of the Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quartz
Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tetrahedra, giving an overall chemical formula of Silicon dioxide, SiO2. Quartz is, therefore, classified structurally as a Silicate mineral#Tectosilicates, framework silicate mineral and compositionally as an oxide mineral. Quartz is the second most abundant mineral in Earth's continental crust, behind feldspar. Quartz exists in two forms, the normal α-quartz and the high-temperature β-quartz, both of which are chiral. The transformation from α-quartz to β-quartz takes place abruptly at . Since the transformation is accompanied by a significant change in volume, it can easily induce microfracturing of ceramics or rocks passing through this temperature threshold. There are many different varieties of quartz, several of which are classifi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Apatite
Apatite is a group of phosphate minerals, usually hydroxyapatite, fluorapatite and chlorapatite, with high concentrations of Hydroxide, OH−, Fluoride, F− and Chloride, Cl− ion, respectively, in the crystal. The formula of the admixture of the three most common Endmember (mineralogy), endmembers is written as Calcium, Ca10(Phosphate, PO4)6(OH,F,Cl)2, and the crystal unit cell formulae of the individual minerals are written as Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2, Ca10(PO4)6F2 and Ca10(PO4)6Cl2. The mineral was named apatite by the German geologist Abraham Gottlob Werner in 1786, although the specific mineral he had described was reclassified as fluorapatite in 1860 by the German mineralogist Karl Friedrich August Rammelsberg. Apatite is often mistaken for other minerals. This tendency is reflected in the mineral's name, which is derived from the Greek word ἀπατάω (apatáō), which means ''to deceive''. Geology Apatite is very common as an accessory mineral in igneous and metamorphic roc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Zircon
Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of the range of substitution in zircon is (Zr1–y, REEy)(SiO4)1–x(OH)4x–y. Zircon precipitates from silicate melts and has relatively high concentrations of high field strength incompatible elements. For example, hafnium is almost always present in quantities ranging from 1 to 4%. The crystal structure of zircon is tetragonal crystal system. The natural color of zircon varies between colorless, yellow-golden, red, brown, blue, and green. The name derives from the Persian ''zargun'', meaning "gold-hued". This word is changed into " jargoon", a term applied to light-colored zircons. The English word "zircon" is derived from ''Zirkon'', which is the German adaptation of this word. Yellow, orange, and red zircon is also known as " hyacint ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Two Tektites
2 (two) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 1 and preceding 3. It is the smallest and the only even prime number. Because it forms the basis of a duality, it has religious and spiritual significance in many cultures. Mathematics The number 2 is the second natural number after 1. Each natural number, including 2, is constructed by succession, that is, by adding 1 to the previous natural number. 2 is the smallest and the only even prime number, and the first Ramanujan prime. It is also the first superior highly composite number, and the first colossally abundant number. An integer is determined to be even if it is divisible by two. When written in base 10, all multiples of 2 will end in 0, 2, 4, 6, or 8; more generally, in any even base, even numbers will end with an even digit. A digon is a polygon with two sides (or edges) and two vertices. Two distinct points in a plane are always sufficient to define a unique line in a nontri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
