21.1 x 12.2 x 6.2 mm
Name: Irghizite Crater Glass/ Tektite
Location: Zhamanshi Meteorite Crater
Country: Kazakhstan, RUSSIA
Age: 0.9 ± 0.1 Ma
Crater Diameter: 14 km

A very nice an bizarre formed Impact Glass found at the Zhamanshin Crater. It is associated with impactites called zhamanshinites, which contain coesite, stishovite, maskelynite and melted foamed silica. Yu. F. Pogrebyak found that the elements Ni, Co. and Cr occur in irghizites at levels so much above the levels in the country rock that there can be little doubt that these elements must have come from the projectile that made the crater. Following this conclusion the projectile could not have been an iron meteorite nor a stony-iron. Could it have been a comet? It is concluded that the geochemical data are consistent with the hypothesis of a giant tektite as the projectile at Zhamanshin, and are not consistent with any kind of non-glassy meteorite. - A very interesting Hypothesis.

This is a Specimen not to be missed in a Meteorite Collection.