Libyan Desert and Other Glasses

Among the many different rocks and minerals found on Earth are a small group of natural glasses. Many of these are called crater glasses and others are of origin which is still debated and may be tektite glass.

The crater glasses are different in appearance and form from tektites and are sometimes more porous where tektites are generally much lower in the amount of bubbles they contain.

Darwin glass is found around the remains of a crater in Tasmania. It is usually a grayish green and often translucent. Zhamanshin Crater Glass is a variety of colors, and often banded colors from black to yellow. It can be dense or porous. Along with the various crater glass types at the Zhamanshin crater are small bits of black glass called Irghizites.

Wabar glass is dark gray to black and can be tiny droplets or larger masses.

In all cases crater glasses are a poorer quality glass than that of tektites. Perhaps this is what makes the classification of Libyan Desert Glass difficult. It is light in color and of a high quality glass. It has been debated for some time whether it is of tektite origin or from an undiscovered crater.