Google
 

Friday, July 27, 2007

Meteorite Way Information II

* North American Strewnfield
The southeastern portion of the United States has two regions where tektites are found. The tektites from each location are quite distinct from each other. Texas is the area where the Bediasites are found. These are dark in color and often round with deep grooving. Georgia as the name states the location of the Georgia Tektites. These are very translucent and green in color.
One Georgia Tektite was found on Martha's Vineyard however, the lack of others may indicate that it was taken there by man in the past.

* The Moldavite Strewnfield
The Moldavite strewnfield is divided into two parts and the tektites from each of these parts are distinctive in color from each other. These areas are quite small by comparison to some of the other strewnfields. But, none the less great amounts of Moldavites have been found. The most prized are the deeply grooved and clear green pieces. The green Moldavites have been and continue to be used for stones in jewelry.

* Ivory Coast Strewnfield
The western coast of Africa is the location of the Ivory Coast tektites. The strewnfield extends out into the Atlantic ocean for some distance based on microtektites recovered from cores of the sediments. These tektites are extremely rare because of the difficulty in recovering them from the forested areas. They are black in color and often have an egg shape or nearly spherical shape.

* Australasian Strewnfield
By far the largest; the Australasian tektite area encompasses most of Southeast Asia, including Vietnam, Thailand, Southern China, Laos and Cambodia. It stretches across the ocean to include the islands of the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaya and Java. It reaches far out into the Indian Ocean and south to the western side of Australia. Approximately one tenth of the Earth's surface is accounted part of the strewnfield.

Australites are generally very dark in color, for the most part essentially black. Thin edges or broken parts will have a yellow or brown color when examined with back lighting. They have a wide range of forms. Teardrops, dumbbells, spheres, rods, discs and all types of irregular shapes. In Australia are found aerodynamic button shaped tektites and their cores that remain when they fly apart in the passage through the atmosphere.

by The Meteorite Exchange, Inc :
http://www.meteorite.com/