Absolutely- BEST quality n’ color, very translucent Libyan Desert Glass

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Seller: smaroon65 ✉️ (559) 100%, Location: Denver, Colorado, US, Ships to: US & many other countries, Item: 256078087551 Absolutely- BEST quality n’ color, very translucent Libyan Desert Glass. The VERY BEST -highest quality LDG available online.  It has an amazing radiant golden-yellow color (I think of it as sunshine captured in crystal) and it is a very translucent piece.   W eighing in at  40 grams, measuring  1 3/8" x 1 1/4" x 3/4”. It has regmaglypts and sandswept sides and pollished all around the gem.  It is in excellent shape-  No scratches or chips on this beautiful specimen- something seldom seen on a piece of LDG.  This is an actual piece of history that was created from an incredible meteor impact event in earth's past some 28 million years ago in the Sahara Desert.  This semi-precious gem is the kind of item that you'll want to pass down to family members from generation to generation.  LDG is a great investment.  The price of LDG has increased every year since I started collecting it 12 years ago.  The supply of Libyan Desert Glass is extremely limited and no additonal LDG will be added to this small but highly "in-demand" market.  The Egyptian government has made it illigal to take any LDG  from the impact site and it has become nearly impossible to reach the site due to its distance and terrorist activities in the area.  LDG is one of the best examples of the incredible natural beauty found in nature.  Rare and beautiful as it is, this very high quality piece of art will only appreciate in value over time as most other beautiful, rare and mysterious items do. 

I guarantee this is genuine LDG (many fake pieces of glass claiming to be LDG are out there being sold online- beware). I will gladly refund your money if you are not completely satisfied with your purchase.   Metaphysical uses for Libyan Desert Glass include:

Assisting in helping one to complete tasks. Helping to develop leadership qualities. Aligning the energy centers of the body. Balancing the nervous system Helping to provide stability and progress _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  _

Mystery of Libyan desert glass solved at last

 In the remote desert of western Egypt, near the Libyan border, lie clues to an ancient cosmic cataclysm.  

Famous since the time of King Tut the origin of the scattered glass fragments has long puzzled researchers. Aaron Cavosie from Australia?s Curtin University explains.  

A collection of raw Libyan desert glass. 

In the remote desert of western Egypt, near the Libyan border, lie clues to an ancient cosmic cataclysm.

Libyan desert glass is the name given to fragments of canary-yellow glass found scattered over hundreds of kilometres, between giant shifting sand dunes.

Interest in Libyan desert glass goes back more than 3,000 years. Among items recovered from King Tut?s burial chamber is a gold and jewel-encrusted breastplate . In the centre sits a beautiful scarab beetle, carved from Libyan desert glass.

Libyan desert glass ? raw and carved ? is easily available today , but how the glass formed has long puzzled scientists.

Our research  has found the answer.

The heat is on

Studies  show the Libyan desert glass formed about 29 million years ago. The glass is nearly pure silica, which requires temperatures above 1,600? to form, and that is hotter than any igneous rock on Earth.

Optical light images of a thin slice of Libyan desert glass.  Aaron J Cavosie

But few mineral relics survived from whatever caused the melting. Within the glass are rare occurrences of high-temperature minerals, including a form of quartz called cristobalite.

There are also grains of the mineral zircon, although most have reacted to form a higher-temperature mineral called zirconia .

Ideas about how the glass formed include melting during meteorite impact, or melting caused by an airburst from an asteroid or other object burning up high in Earth?s atmosphere.

Despite many studies, definitive proof about which origin is correct has been elusive, until now.

One problem is that no impact crater from any object hitting the ground in the area has been identified as the source of the glass. Another was the lack of evidence of damage from high-pressure shock waves caused by any impact.

Evidence of impact

Our research, published in the journal Geology , reports the first evidence of high-pressure damage, showing the glass formed during a meteorite impact.

Meteorite impacts and airbursts are both catastrophic events. Large meteorite impacts, such as the one that killed the dinosaurs  more than 65 million years ago, are rare.

But airbursts occur more frequently. An airburst over Chelyabinsk , Russia, in 2013 caused extensive property damage and injured people.

Boom!

The Chelyabinsk airburst deposited 0.5 megatons of energy  into the sky. Despite the damage, that event did not cause melting or shock damage.

In contrast, Libyan desert glass is thought by some to have been caused by a 100-megaton airburst, an event 200 times larger than the Russian airburst.

The airburst idea arose from modelling atmospheric nuclear explosions. Like a nuclear bomb, a large airburst deposits energy into the atmosphere that can melt surface materials. And an airburst does not leave a crater.

The ?smoking gun?

The new ?smoking gun? for understanding the origin of the Libyan desert glass is

evidence of an unusual mineral called reidite. Reidite only forms during a meteorite impact, when atoms in the mineral zircon are forced into a tighter arrangement.

Such high-pressure minerals are a hallmark of a meteorite impact, and do not form during airbursts.

Zircon is a common mineral in granite, sandstone and other rock types. It is known from Earth, the Moon, Mars, and various meteorites. It is widely used for dating when rocks formed.

Zircon is also useful when searching for evidence of shock deformation caused by a meteorite impact. At low shock intensity, zircon deforms by bending of the crystal. It is like bending a plastic spoon to the point where it deforms but does not break.

As the shock intensity increases, zircon further responds in several unique ways and at extreme pressures, reidite forms.

If the rocks then get hot, zircon will recrystallise. This results in the formation of a network of new, tiny interlocking grains. Above 1,700? zircon ultimately breaks down to zirconia.

Libyan desert glass contains many zircon grains, all smaller than the width of a human hair. While most reacted to zirconia due to the heat, about 10% preserve evidence of former reidite. But the thing is, reidite is no longer present.

Reidite is not stable when hot, and reverts back to zircon above 1,200?. It only gets preserved if shocked rocks do not melt. So it takes a specialised technique called electron backscatter diffraction to nut out whether reidite once existed in shocked zircons that got hot.

The key to finding evidence of former reidite  lies in analysing the crystal orientations of the tiny interlocking grains in reverted zircon.

Similar to turning a Rubik?s cube, the initial transformation to reidite occurs along specific directions in a zircon crystal. When reidite changes back to zircon, it leaves a fingerprint of its existence that can be detected through orientation analysis.

And we found the reidite fingerprint in samples of the Libyan desert glass. We examined zircon grains from seven samples and the critical crystal orientation evidence of former reidite was present in each sample.

A closer look at Libyan desert glass: The colors indicate the crystal orientations of tiny interlocking grains of recrystallised zircon. A recrystallized zircon with no history of

reidite would be the same color.

A meteor impact

Reidite is rare and only reported from meteorite impact sites. It is found in material ejected  from craters and in shocked rocks  at craters.

Prior studies have found evidence of former reidite within zircon from impact melt , similar to how it was identified in Libyan desert glass.

A 100 megaton airburst should occur every 10,000 years . If this size event is supposed to have caused Libyan desert glass to form, the geological record does not support the idea. The reidite fingerprint points to a meteor impact as the only option.

Outstanding mysteries about Libyan desert glass still remain, such as the location of the source crater, its size, and determining if it has eroded away.

Aaron J. Cavosie , Senior research fellow, Curtin University

This article is republished from The Conversation  under a Creative Commons license

  • Condition: New
  • metaphysical, space rock, meteorite: Impact, Sahara Desert, metaphysical, gemstone
  • meteorite rock, LDG, gemstone,: Libyan desert glass, Tektite, LDG, meteorite
  • Country/Region of Manufacture: Egypt
  • Modified Item: No

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