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 can be preserved as mineral inclusions in other phases because as it partially reverts to quartz, the quartz rim exerts pressure on the core of the grain, preserving the metastable grain as tectonic forces uplift and expose these rock at the surface.

As a result, the grains have a characteristic texture of a polycrystalline quartz rim (see infobox figure).

Coesite has been identified in UHP metamorphic rocks around the world, including the western Alps of Italy at Dora Maira,[8] the Ore Mountains of Germany,[9] the Lanterman Range of Antarctica,[10] in the Kokchetav Massif of Kazakhstan,[11] in the Western Gneiss region of Norway,[12] the Dabie-Shan Range in Eastern China,[13][14] the Himalayas of Eastern Pakistan,[15] and in the Appalachian Mountains of Vermont.

The crystal structure of coesite is similar to that of feldspar and consists of four silicon dioxide tetrahedra arranged in Si4O8 and Si8O16 rings.