Darwin Glass

The day it rained glass. Around 800 thousand years ago a large nickel iron meteorite that was once part of the core of an ancient planet slammed into the isolated west coast of Tasmania south of Queenstown, forming a large impact crater. This big old lump of space rock was travelling at an estimated 22 thousand kilometers per second. Before it had even hit the ground the heat and pressure waves generated from its passage through the Earths atmosphere had already melted the ground it was about to hit. The meteorite impact was like throwing a rock into a puddle of water, the result was a big splash of molten rock mixed with vaporised meteorite, this material solidified in the air or as it hit the ground as glass and formed an amazing variety of shapes. "Darwin Glass" varies in colour from white through to black, transparent and translucent greens and browns are also found but more rarely. This rare tektite glass comes in a great variety of shapes from spheres, discs and drips to bent, twisted and multi coloured layers. Recently ancient life forms were found in the glasses bubbles. The strew field or area the splashed out pieces landed over covers around 400 square kilometers and is made up of rugged mountains and dense rainforest. The Rare and Beautiful has some of the nicest material available to collectors which we have gathered over nearly 30 years of hunting old collections, gem shows and markets. We have also found some specimens ourselves from areas outside the park, where the impact crater is now located. We have pieces to suit every level of collecting from new collectors to museums.

This large piece weighs 40 gram and looks like it was a drop shape that has been slightly flatten. 6cm x 3.2cm x 2cm