TEKTITES — BEYER 255 



The most typical Java tektites are found only in central Java, but 

 a few very similar specimens occur in the Philippines (particularly in 

 the Santa Mesa district of Rizal Province) . 



The largest known whole tektites occur in southeastern Luzon, in 

 the Paracale district of the Bikol Peninsula, while those of Indo- 

 China rank next, and the Malaysianites probably third. The great 

 Bikol tektites may be truly called "super-sized," since most of them 

 are large, and small specimens comparatively scarce. The largest 

 fomid so far weighs 1,070 g., and is an almost perfect sphere a little 

 over 4 inches in diameter, but more than a hundred Bikol specimens 

 running from 200 to 700 g. each have so far been found. The largest 

 recorded whole Indo-China specimen is from Cambodia, and weighs 

 630 g., while the largest known Malaysianite is believed to have come 

 from Pahang and weighs 464 g. Only a few other specimens weigh- 

 ing 300 g. or more are known, all of them having come from the Indo- 

 Malaysianite region, most of them being from Indo-China and the 

 Philippines, with one each from Java and the Malay Peninsula. 

 The average for this region, however, is between only 15 and 20 g. 

 The largest Australite has the exceptional weight of 218 g., since the 

 Australites are the smallest of all tektites, averaging only about 1 g. 

 each or less. Tektites from other regions are intermediate, but no 

 recorded specimen reaches 150 g. in weight. 



However, what was originally probably the most gigantic of all 

 tektites is again recorded from Indo-China. This is the famous 

 specimen of Lower Laos, of which several thousand irregular frag- 

 ments have so far been gathered within a relatively small area. The 

 largest piece weighs more than 3 kg., while many of the smaller ones 

 weigh only a few grams each. The evidence to date seems to indicate 

 that all of these pieces are parts of a single huge tektite, perhaps half 

 a meter in diameter, and weighing nearly 100 kg. One of the most 

 interesting things about these finds is that no other small whole 

 tektites have been found anywhere near the same region; this fact 

 lends force to the cosmic theory, since any shower of smaller bodies 

 accompanying this great cosmic bomb would have tended to fall far 

 behind in the course of its flight through the earth's atmosphere. 



This brings us back again to the various theories accounting for 

 the origin of the tektite glass itself. Many such theories have been 

 propounded in the past, but most of them have been demolished by 

 the extensive and often bitter criticism to which they have been sub- 

 jected. A few theories, however, have withstood much critical dis- 

 cussion and are still worthy of serious consideration, although no 

 single theory has yet received universal or wide acceptance among a 

 majority of those interested in the major tektite problem and its 

 solution. I shall conclude this paper by summarizing, first, the 

 essential features of three views that are still being seriously con- 



