June, 1953 THE SOUTH AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST Fifty-five 
Australites and Other Tektites 
by Charles Fenner , S.A. Museum. 
Research Associate of the Institute of Meteorites, University of New Mexico. 
The name “Tektite” was given 
by the late Franz E. Suess, of 
Vienna, to blobs of natural melted 
glass, variously shaped, found on 
the surface of the earth or in 
alluvial deposits. The word simply 
means “melted” and was wisely 
chosen, since that is a definite 
characteristic common to all tek- 
tites. These small objects consti- 
tute one of Nature's puzzles. 
Scientific enquirers over more 
than 150 years have been unable 
to agree as to the exact nature of 
their origin. Not that there has 
been any lack of skilled enquirers, 
nor of theories. For instance, in 
1940, Virgil E. Barnes, of Texas, 
published a list of references to 
scientific publications about tek- 
tites, and even at that date the list 
included 285 different papers. 
The earliest recorded tektites, 
and possibly the oldest geologically, 
were those found in Moldavia, 
called Moldavites. Beyer (Manila) 
considers that the Rizalites, etc., 
of the Philippine Islands fell in the 
Mesolithic to Neolithic periods 
8000 b.c. to 2000 b.c. 
It may be asked why similar 
objects have not been found in the 
older rocks of the earth. Since they 
fell in late Tertiary and in Recent 
times, one would expect that 
similar objects would have fallen 
on the earth in earlier periods. 
Perhaps they have fallen, and been 
missed by geologists. Another 
theory is that they have become 
devitrified and thus unrecogniz- 
able. 
The earliest recorded Austral ite 
was found in Western New South 
Wales, and was given by the ex- 
plorer, Major Mitchell, to Chanes 
Darwin, when that great scientist 
visited Sydney. Darwin figured 
and described it in his “Geological 
Observations,” 1844. Darwin 
thought it to be of volcanic origin, 
but that theory has been discarded. 
Tektite swarms have been found 
in Moldavia, Billiton, Australia, 
Tasmania, Ivory Coast (Africa), 
Indo-China, Java, Phillipine 
Islands, Borneo, Libyan Desert, 
Colombia (South America), 
Texas (North America) and 
other places. The material 
called Darwin Glass and that 
called Libyan Glass are some- 
what different, both in composi- 
tion and appearance, from that of 
the other groups, but their origin 
is even more mysterious; perhaps 
we should not class these two 
groups as tektites until we know 
more about them. 
Moldavites have been found in 
thousands and may be seen in 
large numbers at Prague; they are 
of a beautiful translucent green or 
brown colour. Apart from Libyan 
glass and Darwin glass, most tek- 
tites when broken look like black 
bottle-glass. Libyan glass is in 
larger masses and yellowish. Dar- 
win glass is of frothy irregular 
character, light in colour. Indo- 
chinites are very numerous, as may 
be seen in museums. Philippinites 
and Javanites are also very abun- 
dant. It has been estimated that 
