Libyan desert glass

Libyan desert glass or Great Sand Sea glass is an impactite, made mostly of lechatelierite,[1] found in areas in the eastern Sahara, in the deserts of eastern Libya and western Egypt.

Fragments of desert glass can be found over areas of tens of square kilometers.

Meteoritic origins have long been considered possible, and recent research links the glass to impact features, such as zircon breakdown, vaporized quartz and meteoritic metals, and to an impact crater.

[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][excessive citations] Some geologists[10] associate the glass with radiative melting from meteoric large aerial bursts, making it analogous to trinitite created from sand exposed to the thermal radiation of a nuclear explosion.

Libyan Desert glass has been dated as having formed about 29 million years ago.

Libyan desert glass
A large sample with mass 26 kg. Exhibited at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris in 2018.
Partial distribution of Silica-glass in the Libyan Desert. 1934 map.
Tutankhamun 's pectoral features a scarab carved from desert glass. [ 13 ] [ 14 ]