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Micro-forms of hay-silica glass and of volcanic glass

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

George Baker
George Baker*
Affiliation:
C.S.I.R.O. Mineragraphic Section, c/o University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria 3052, Australia
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Summary

In view of recently reported microtektites in deep-sea sediments north-west, south-west, and south of Australia, attention is drawn to the occurrence of minute forms of hay-silica glass among the products of incineration of opal-bearing vegetation in haystacks, and to the minute forms of volcanic glass ejected in lava fountains. These terrestrial micro-forms of glass have properties within the range of those for the fossil glassy bodies named ‘microtektites’. It is possible that the fusion of opal contained in silica-accumulator plants during fierce, prehistoric forest, bush, and grass fires in Australia generated micro-forms of glass that became readily airborne and drifted away in up-currents. Carried by the south-east Trades, they would ultimately descend over the Wharton Basin in the Indian Ocean. Strong to violent northerlies and north-easterlies (Brickfielder Winds) would carry them over the ocean south and south-west of Australia. Thus they could contribute to the deposits of bodies of glass regarded as microtektites in deep-sea sediments. Many microbodies of glass in the Wharton Basin could have had their origin in the Javanese volcanic eruptions.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 36 , Issue 283 , September 1968 , pp. 1012 - 1023
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1968

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