Mysterious Black Glass in Chilean Desert Caused by Exploding Comet Thousands of Years Ago
By Rain Jordan Dec 27, 2021 11:23 PM EST
A large expanse of black rocky glass littering a Chilean desert remained a mystery for a decade, but Brown University experts already have proven that an exploding comet created it.
(Photo : Photo by P.H. Schultz/Brown University)
Something torched a 47-mile (75-kilometer) area of the Atacama Desert with heat so intense that the sandy soil became a vast cemetery of silicate glass slabs some 12,000 years ago. Now, a research team has deduced what ignited the firestorm based on the distribution and content of those glasses.
They couldn't find any indication that the dark green or black glass fields were formed by volcanic action. Thus their origin remained a mystery.
Researchers reveal that samples of desert glass include microscopic particles of minerals often seen in extraterrestrial rocks in a study published in the journal Geology. Those minerals are pretty similar to the material brought to Earth by NASA's comet particles sampling.
Foreign Remnants
The scientists now believe that the mineral assemblages are the leftovers of an alien object-most likely a comet-that burst just above the earth, melting and fusing the sandy soil below.
More:
https://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/48690/20211227/mysterious-black-glass-scattered-all-over-the-chilean-desert-caused-by-a-comet-that-exploded-thousands-of-years-ago.htm
