Piece of Libyan Desert Glass impactite, also referred to as Egypt or Egyptian Desert Glass. This excellent translucent individual with pseudo regmaglypts weighs 110.6 grams and measures approximately 76 mm x 62 mm x 30 mm.
When British archaeologist Howard Carter entered the tomb of pharaoh Tutankhamun for the first time in 1922, he found burial chambers resplendent with items made of gold and ivory and precious jewelry. Among those items was the now-famous breastplate decorated with gold, silver, and gemstones, including a strange yellow-green gemstone centerpiece that made up the body of Ra, shown as a winged scarab.
That gemstone was found to be Libyan Desert Glass, a beautiful honey-colored impactite that was revered by the ancient Egyptians. While not actually a meteorite, this lovely natural glass is the progeny of a large meteorites collision with our planet. The composition of LDG is rather astonishing; it’s almost completely pure silica. In an article titled “The Riddle of the Sands,” Giles Wright says that it’s the purest natural silica glass ever found. Some pieces of LDG display small, opaque, spherical inclusions of a silica polymorph called cristobalite. Its presence in these curious glasses indicates that at one time, the source rock had been heated to temperatures of at least 2822°F (1550°C). Other inclusions have been found in LDG, and scientists study these to attempt to piece together how, exactly, the glasses formed and under what conditions.
Libyan Desert Glass is now difficult to obtain, due to the inaccessibility of the region where they are found and restrictions imposed by the Egyptian government that, in most cases, prohibit the removal of the material from the site. Aerolite Meteorites is fortunate enough to have pieces of the mystical glasses in stock, obtained legally, that display fascinating inclusions, shapes formed by years have the wind and sand swept over them, and in rare cases, marvelous translucency.
Accompanied by an Aerolite Meteorites COA. Aerolite, one of the world’s most well-respected meteorite companies, was founded by Geoff Notkin, who famously starred in the TV show “Meteorite Men.”