TEKTITES AND THE LOST PLANET — STAIR 221 



naceous chondrites, carbon in meteorites is always found to be in the 

 inorganic forms of carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, graphite, dia- 

 mond, or as amorphous carbon. If this meteoric planet was originally 

 located between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, temperature condi- 

 tions would have been such that any water present would necessarily 

 have been in the solid state (ice). Therefore surface glass forma- 

 tions should have remained somewhat in their original state. The 

 fact that some of the sedimentary material near the earth's surface 

 approximates the tektite glasses in composition may indicate that 

 the surface layer of the earth was once of similar glassy structure 

 which became eroded and transformed into sedimentary rocks. 



Tektite glasses, which must have been located somewhere on or near 

 the surface of the meteoric planet, have fusing or melting points and 

 general physical characteristics in the form of striae, strain, and 

 inhomogeneity, which call for a forming temperature between about 

 1,500 and 2,500° C. It should be noted at this point that glasses of 

 this type are not producible as flash products resulting from a collision 

 or short-period heating by any other means. Long periods of time are 

 required for the different oxides composing the glass to properly fus'i 

 and mix into a more or less homogeneous glass product. During this 

 time the temperature must be well above the melting point of the glass. 

 Temperatures too high, on the other hand, would vaporize certain 

 components of the glass. How^ever, the general character of all the 

 tektite glasses indicates incomplete mixing as is to be expected under 

 conditions wherein new materials are being constantly added to the 

 glass batch. The fact that certain of the alkalies remain within the 

 glass is an important consideration in any study of the temperature 

 conditions under which the tektites were formed. The presence of 

 oxygen in combination with the various metals forming the basic 

 structure of the glass serves as conclusive evidence of the existence of 

 that element in considerable amount on the meteoric planet at the time 

 the tektite glasses were formed. Simulated laboi'atory tests in the 

 making or melting of glasses of similar composition (or, better, with 

 some of the tektite glasses) should result in very useful information 

 regarding the conditions under which they were formed. If the glass 

 were heated to higher and higher temperatures certain of the oxides 

 would be expected to successively boil off leaving glass of such com- 

 positions as to make possible a correlation between the glass composi- 

 tion and the temperature conditions under which it was made. 



A study of the spectral transmission of thin slices of tektite glass 

 offers a convenient means of obtaining certain information concerning 

 their physical and chemical constitution. Many other avenues of in- 

 vestigation are awaiting exploration. The transmission curves in the 

 ultraviolet, visible, and infrared for some of the tektites are given in 



