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King Tut's Tektite - Part 3 of 4



V.E. Barnes (1990) Tektite Research 1936-1990 (Meteoritics 25-3, 1990,
149-159 - Libyan Desert Glass Expedition, p. 154, excerpts):

On the return trip we visited the Oasis astrobleme in Libya, which is
about 150 km west of the Libyan Desert glass area (Underwood and Fisk,
1980). The Oasis astrobleme is about 11.5 km in diameter*... Dr.
Underwood and his colleagues estimate that about 1.4 x 10^9 grams of
Libyan Desert glass is present in an area of about 6500 km^2 (Murali et
al., 1989). In the dark streaks occasionally encountered in LDG, they
found an extraterrestrial component comparable to chondrites. This
finding strongly supports the impact origin for LDG, first mentioned as
a possibility by Spencer and Clayton (1934) in their announcement of the
discovery of LDG, and it substantiates Cohen's (1961) surmise, based
chiefly on his gallium and germanium studies, that LDG "was produced by
impact of a body low in nickel-iron such as a comet or stony meteorite"
on the desert sand.


Best Easter wishes,

Bernd


* Oasis: 24° 35’ N / 24° 24’ E

A circular structure, 11.5 km in Nubian sandstones is possibly of
meteoritic origin and contemporaneous with Gebel Dalma 80 km to the
north; shock metamorphic features, B.M. French et al., Bull. Geol. Soc.
Amer., 1974, vol. 85, p. 1425. J.F.McHone et al. (1995) Space shuttle
radar images of terrestrial  impact structures: SIR-C/X-SAR (abs.
Meteoritics 30, 543).

Gebel Dalma: 25° 19’ N / 24° 02’ E

A circular structure, 2.8 km in diameter in Mesozoic strata 165 km
northeast of the Kufra Oasis and 75 miles ESE of Gebel Dalma is possibly
of meteoritic origin, A.J. Martin, Nature, 1969, vol. 223, p. 940; an
association with Libyan Desert Glass is suggested. Description of shock
metamorphic features, amended coordinates and suggestion that the
feature had a simultaneous origin with the "Oasis structure" 80 km to
the south, B.M. French et al., Bull. Geol. Soc. Amer., 1974, vol. 85, p.
1425. C. Koeberl, 1985, Trace Element Chemistry of Libyan Desert Glass,
Meteoritics 20, 686.


Best Easter wishes,

Bernd


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