Australian Tektites ( Australites )

[Jen58]

On 3/10/2017 at 5:10 AM, madtuna said:

It's like roo poo and tektites.

You put them in your mouth and if green slime dribbles down your chin it's not a tektite

Well... thats a bit on the ewwwww  side..    

i have to admit the very first tektite i had found while in W.A was on a white quartz hill, as i was zig zagging between the trees and low bushes, there was this longish black looking interesting object....i didn't know what it was.. my first thought was.. ok.. hmmmm, no other dark rocks or stones about., i reckon this is from a kangaroo.. so i stood on it!  Nope still in one piece.. so I stood on it and twisted my foot, pressed down hard as i could. took my foot away, and it was still there, i thought wow!!!  it sure has been baked hard in the sun.. it won't squash down to all mushy and green like kangaroo poop should.. 

so i than though ok.. i am intrigued now.. so bent down and picked it up.. gee its heavier than kangaroo poop.. ( yes i know what the feel and weight of kangaroo poop is lol )

and NO i have never put it in my mouth.. ewwwww .. lol

never seen a rock like this before it was black. My first Tektite 

[GoldEn]

wow thats cool looking rock Jan.

Well done.

 

GoldEN

[Jen58]

Thankyou

and now we have a bag full of them.. just love looking for them

we don't do the squash them test any more..  see straight away..

but the odd roo poo still tricks us   

Depending on their re-entry they come back down to the planet in different sizes and shapes. 

heres a few more.

[Steve Herschbach]

Great finds, more exciting than a nugget in my opinion!

The basics from Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australite

Excellent article here http://www.earthsci.org/fossils/space/tektites/tektites.html

[idahogold]

I knew the name before I got to Steve's post! Yeah! studying Geology really works!

Nice finds! Great post! 

Cheers,Ig

[beatup]

great finds, would like to find one of those someday

[geof_junk]

The nugget is about 5 Oz

[cadian]

Great looking Tektites guys,every time I go to the west I never seem to be able to find any. the best thing I found was nice large Quartz Crystal which I had made into a large heart shaped stone.

Cheers Dave

[mn90403]

On February 26 I went to a lecture at the UCLA  Meteorite Gallery and the topic was tektites.  The lecturer was John Wasson who has studied these for many years.

This PDF explains what he said better than anything I can remember.

http://www.hou.usra.edu/meetings/lpsc2015/pdf/2879.pdf