Darwin Glass - Nature

Nature

The glass is light to dark green, white or black. The glass takes the form of twisted masses, fragments or chunks up to 10 cm. Internally it has a flowing texture defined by lines of elliptical bubbles. There are two kinds of Darwin glass when composition is measured. Type 1 is normally white or green whereas type 2 is normally black to dark green. The dark glass contains less silica and more magnesium and iron than the light green glass. The dark glass is also enriched in chromium, nickel and cobalt. A possible explanation for the chemical differences is that, in addition to being mainly composed of melted local metamorphic rocks, the type 2 glass also contains a component of extraterrestrial material from the meteorite. Darwin glass has been dated at about 816,000 years old using argon dating methods.

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