Mystery Of The Sahara Desert Glass

The latest research almost proves that Libyan desert glass is the terrestrial by-product of a massive bolide impacting in desert sands. Analysis shows rapidly quenched molten silica with signs of molecularly altered zircon crystals, shocked quartz and metals such as nickel and iron. The only force that can produce this material is really a cosmic impact. Nuclear blasts come close, but the material is very low quality and frothy. Fulgerites from lightning impact is even more frothy and grainy, and looks more like cemented sand.

The Libyan desert glasses are technically Tektites, and share the same characteristics as other Tektite strewn fields such as Darwin Glass (Tasmania), Moldevite (Czech Republic, Thailand). and Guangdong (China) and Bediasite (Chesapeake bay).

Libyan desert glass is getting rarer to own, since they shut down all foreign access to the strewn field areas and have made it illegal to export. Still, there is plenty of it already in the market.

Originally posted by mcx1942

Interesting enough; I've held this type of glass in my own hands and can attest to it's density: it's extremely heavy compared to glass you find in windows, vases, etc.

That being said, I do not buy the 'asteroid impact right above the Earth' explanation. The reason being, is that vitrification (the process by which rock and sand glaze over or turn into glass) has happened in remote places all over the world in our distant past and I don't think we can blame them ALL on Tunguska like events. Now, we know Tunguska events happen once or twice every hundred years or so, but there are historical texts from our most ancient of civilizations that give many answers to these 'living' riddles.

It just takes time and understanding to look at history and compare it to religious texts (take your pick), to find key events that line up. I can't tell people enough...the evidence is in writing and in storytelling. The Western 'society' doesn't have it figured out and the more they (the scientific community) attempts to explain the inexplicable, the further they get from the truth.

This glass...is probably volcanic or a bi-product of fusion tens of thousands of years ago. The Egyptians found this glass, like they did the pyramids, and utilized it in their jewelry. They hadn't a clue as to where the glass came from, so that tells you it occurred beyond 10,000 years ago. That being said, it's been found ON TOP of the soil/sand/plateaus, so it can't be THAT old.

Anyone who doesn't believe me, look into vitrification of stone walls in England, Peru, India, Sri Lanka, China, Russia, America, and Mexico. Then explain to me that all these ancient folks stories (religions) are just made up fantasy.

(I'm quite tired as it's 3am, so I hope this all makes sense.)

reply to post by Miracula


I concur. Way more plausible than meteors, sorry. Lightning making glass in the sand is a common phenomena.

Originally posted by the sloth
reply to post by Miracula

 

I concur. Way more plausible than meteors, sorry. Lightning making glass in the sand is a common phenomena.

Not really...I think that it is a combination of the two that is most likely, both reflecting their own event signature and therefore easily to differentiate. Silica forms as a result of both natural phenomenon, and while impact sites are confirmed throughout the Sahara region, with dispersal of silica being in line with an impact event, the only evidence of lightening strikes being a regular phenomenon, is the presence of fulgurite. Therefore, one theory does not negate the other, but meteor strikes are proven to have occurred where as lightening is presumed to have, particularly in the case of Libya, based on the dispersal of fulgurite not being identifiable as belonging to an impact event.

Map detailing impact events in Africa for reference...

www.passc.net...

reply to post by mcx1942


- beautiful OP and nice presented MCX, s & f

what about the Mohenjedaro desert ? glass everywhere there as well

.. i ve read one time, that the Earth may have "given off an electric arc ",
that this was what caused f e the grand canyon
but also was responsible for the tunguska event

- i know that the hindu Rama story mentions vimanas and nuclear events,
not sure which event could cause glass in that many different places..or perhaps both one and the other ?

A very informative site to do all types of research on !! might explain a lot about the glass in the desert and other craters and vitrified cities I'm trying to figure out the dating of the sites with added radiation to them

s8int.com...

Perhaps i misread, but if the Sahara desert is only 7,000 years old and the impact occurred 30 million years ago, what does the desert have to do with the formation of the glass? Was there even sand here 30 million years ago?

Xterran said, "They hadn't a clue as to where the glass came from, so that tells you it occurred beyond 10,000 years ago. That being said, it's been found ON TOP of the soil/sand/plateaus, so it can't be THAT old."

Take a farmers field for example, every spring you have to remove large rocks that have made their way up from deep below. just because something is "on top" doesn't mean it isn't incredibly old.

Originally posted by Samuelis
The glass is obviously caused from ancient nuclear explosions. It's clear that the absence of an impact crater proves that the meteor theory is completely baseless, that and the fact that a large part of Russia wasn't totally destroyed. It's just science.

I think you just debunked your own conclusion

According to the documentary on this in the thread, the scientists say the glass is always found in different areas when they visit. Suggesting the glass is constantly shifted in the dunes wind.

The smooth, smaller pieces are found on the surface and it is the sand and wind that polish them over time. Larger pieces can be found under the sand that are rough because they have not been exposed to the elements.

At 16:22-18:24 in the video, they talk about one of the mysteries is why these glass pieces are scattered over such a large area. No one knows for sure how much glass is in the desert, estimates range from hundreds to thousands of tons. The dunes shift some 10 meters per year so newly exposed glass is constantly being churned by the dunes.

Thank you all for the comments. Like I said in the op, this is a "theory" and I am in no way an expert on this subject matter. So all insight is welcomed and appreciated.

reply to post by mcx1942


Apparently they found a layer of vitrified soil under some of the ruins in Mesopotamia predating the Nineveh civilisation and one study shows how there early civilisation had the decimal point, the zero, public education for the children, a grain based economy and the first professional army recorded(Accepted by western archaeology). It was like they sprang up from nowhere fully formed and the slow degradation began so it was not until the last thousand years that the decimal point was re invented and the zero but we use the decimal or base 10 counting system, we still use the Nineveh system for telling the time though as they used a base 12 system of counting as well as introducing the cuneiform script which lasted and was used by several cultures over three and a half thousand years as though it used combinations of a standard triangular stylus embedded into clay it was a phonetic and not a hieroglyphic script.
They are supposed to have jumped from hunter gatherers straight into urban planning and farming on the fertile crescent.
Given the legends of ancient war and the iron thunderbolt that explodes with the light of ten thousand suns throwing entire army's into the air, poisoning the food and water and causing the hair, nails and teeth to fall out as well as blackening and cracking the skin. the army that used it having to wash in the water and the sky's being blackened, the existence of this glass in several locations around the world that is could as well as the lightning, air burst meteor's and pyroclastic flows near volcanoes have been down to just this an ancient atomic war or something that resembles it very closely maybe even leading to a global famine and climate change that may have nearly extinguished the human species.

This is nothing new.
There was a meteor that hit, and melted the sand in to glass.

One thing I find extremely interesting is how this desert glass is unlike any other naturally formed glass found throughout the world. The uniqueness of this phenomenon, it's location and just over all intrigue makes me immensely curious about this desert glass.

At 9:37 in the documentary Austrian astrochemist Christian Koeberl asked the Natural History Museum in Vienna for help analyzing the glass. Koeberl used their electron microscope to search for zircon crystals. He found the zircon disintegrated in parts to a form a silica. Then the amount of zircon left in the areas in it can help determine how far the designation has progressed and what temperatures were reached in the process. The video explains it much better than I can.

From this process he came up with the temperature of 1,800 degrees Celsius/3,272 degrees Fahrenheit, compared to volcanic lava at about 1,100 degrees Celsius/2,012 degrees Fahrenheit. That is why they theorize a meteorite, due to the intense heat, since they can rule out lava.

Lightning can reach as high as 54,000 degrees Fahrenheit/29,982 degrees Celsius which is obviously hot enough to melt sand but these glass pieces in the op are found throughout large swathes of land. To me, the mega explosion of an aerial burst meteor just seems to fit better as an explanation more than lightning. I would imagine if it was caused by lightning, there would be much less glass and in a much smaller more condensed area. As what was stated earlier, the team of scientists know that these Sahara glass pieces are different than glass made by lightning.

That is why these glass anomalies are extremely intriguing. They are not found anywhere else in the world and are immensely different than all similar specimens found previously(other naturally formed glass).

Originally posted by tomten
This is nothing new.
There was a meteor that hit, and melted the sand in to glass.

It is how it happened that is new. The meteorite did not impact in the traditional way, according to the scientific team. It was an aerial burst. Now it is becoming more accepted that more and more asteroids may be rubble piles. They believe rubble piles have very high chances of creating the aerial burst explosion.

Rubble piles are a loose assembly of rocks held together by gravity. The paradigm is now shifting to most asteroids are probably rubble piles. That is why work like this is important. It is helping to understand our Universe just a little more. This team's research is helping us understand many disciplines just a little bit better.

If it was a "rubble pile" that was the cause of these desert glass anomalies, that would explain the lack of a definitive crater. The image I posted is just a possible crater. They really have no hard evidence to point them to an exact location.

Originally posted by LABTECH767
reply to post by mcx1942

 

Apparently they found a layer of vitrified soil under some of the ruins in Mesopotamia predating the Nineveh civilisation and one study shows how there early civilisation had the decimal point, the zero, public education for the children, a grain based economy and the first professional army recorded(Accepted by western archaeology).

Well no I've never heard of that please provide a PRP that covers these claims please (for the vitrified soil and math claims)

It was like they sprang up from nowhere fully formed and the slow degradation began so it was not until the last thousand years that the decimal point was re invented and the zero but we use the decimal or base 10 counting system, we still use the Nineveh system for telling the time though as they used a base 12 system of counting as well as introducing the cuneiform script which lasted and was used by several cultures over three and a half thousand years as though it used combinations of a standard triangular stylus embedded into clay it was a phonetic and not a hieroglyphic script.

This is a common fringe belief that came from a real archaeologist noting in his book ( I believe it was the book 'History begins at Sumer' by S. N. Kramer) where he noted the quick rise of the Sumerian civilization - in a period of three hundred and twenty-five years it was 'quick' by archaeological standard but not by 'modern' standards. If you believe the fringe hype about 'springing out of nowhere' please look up the Ubaidians you'll find they were in Mesopotamia and were conquered or merged with the Sumerians later on.

They are supposed to have jumped from hunter gatherers straight into urban planning and farming on the fertile crescent.

Nope, see above

Given the legends of ancient war and the iron thunderbolt that explodes with the light of ten thousand suns throwing entire army's into the air, poisoning the food and water and causing the hair, nails and teeth to fall out as well as blackening and cracking the skin. the army that used it having to wash in the water and the sky's being blackened, the existence of this glass in several locations around the world that is could as well as the lightning, air burst meteor's and pyroclastic flows near volcanoes have been down to just this an ancient atomic war or something that resembles it very closely maybe even leading to a global famine and climate change that may have nearly extinguished the human species.

Unfortunately you might want to actually look up where these 'quotes' come from - you'll find they are mainly made up or badly mis-quoted. I believe Harte and others have discussed this with you before.

Meteorites..

Sure, that is where I would put my money on it being.

But, until its conclusive, I assume we can still use imagination of ancient people and space pirates in a desert nuclear war...with vampire zombies.


Anyhow, science of course tells us the (rather obvious) answer of course...but it certainly can cripple some neat and creative stories.
-shakes fist at science-

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Meteorites..

Sure, that is where I would put my money on it being.

But, until its conclusive, I assume we can still use imagination of ancient people and space pirates in a desert nuclear war...with vampire zombies.


Anyhow, science of course tells us the (rather obvious) answer of course...but it certainly can cripple some neat and creative stories.
-shakes fist at science-

I did read a SF short story on just this subject in the 1960s (Argosy mag?) it had an anti-matter explosion causing the blast when it lifted off after they had an accident which irradiated a four-legged beast that would later become the ancestor of mankind.

I Actually bought a piece of this Libyan Glass. When I bought the piece it was sold as a Meteorite impact specimen. Really cool.

Originally posted by Hanslune
This is always an interesting subject

For the nuclear explosion believers a question - if it was an explosion - what was the target? Take a look at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. So why no ruins, why no associated culture or civilization?

Natural - or the aliens or 'advanced humans' were really bad shots or wearing hunting with nukes, lol

Locals who witnessed the Tunguska explosion say they saw a metallic cylindrical shape present before the explosion. Then there was the explosion followed by the sound of falling rocks for three hours afterward. Perhaps the cylindrical object was the pile of rocks falling to the ground. Analysis of peat samples also confirms evidence of a meteorite explosion equivalent to 5 megatonnes.

www.geopoem.com...

High-resolution imaging and spectroscopy techniques were used to identify polycrystalline aggregates of carbon minerals - diamond, lonsdaleite and graphite. Lonsdaleite (named for Kathleen Lonsdale) in particular is known to form under shock metamorphism … it occurs as nanometre-scale intergrowths with diamond and graphite in carbon-rich material subjected to a shock wave, typically formed on meteorite impact. The lonsdaleite fragments contain smaller inclusions of iron sulphides and iron-nickel alloys, troilite and taenite, which are also characteristic meteorite minerals. The iron:nickel ratio and the precise combination of minerals assembled in these small fragments all point to a meteorite source, and is near identical to similar minerals found in the Canyon Diablo meteor that impacted Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater) in Arizona.

reply to post by Glassbender777

Originally posted by Glassbender777
I Actually bought a piece of this Libyan Glass. When I bought the piece it was sold as a Meteorite impact specimen. Really cool.

That is very cool! I have seen some sites selling them and have thought about picking one up myself. There are some reasonably priced ones but they tend to be less "green-yellow" than the more expensive ones. It seems, besides weight, they price them off color too.

My only concern is it must be difficult to actually prove the item I might purchase is actually from the Sahara I would imagine.

www.bibliotecapleyades.net...
reinep.wordpress.com...
ramayanaresearch.com...
www.alieneight.com...
reinep.wordpress.com...
www.philosophicalanthropology.net...