‘messy’ events when viewed from a geological perspective. The general vicinity around other
known impact craters, such as the ones at Wabar in Saudi Arabia and at Henbury in central
Australia for example, are positively littered all about with all manner of debris: chunks of
exploded rock, bits of iron, traces of Iridium and other known types of fragmented meteorite
material. No such debris can be found anywhere in the vicinity of the Libyan Desert Glass sites
though some slight traces of Iridium are indeed found within the glass itself. And just to make
matters even more perplexing, LDG is actually concentrated in two areas of the Libyan Desert
and not just one. One area is large and oval-shaped while the other is more like a strange circular
ring of about six kilometres wide that is about 21 kilometres in diameter. It lies in the desert like a
huge glass, six kilometre wide race track while the wide circular centre of the ring remains totally
devoid of the glass. Now what do you suppose would cause something like that to appear in the
middle of a vast desert? It really doesn’t seem like it could be a natural occurrence in any way
shape or form.
Another theory is that there may have been a soft projectile impact. That is, an earthbound
meteorite of perhaps 30 metres in diameter that may have detonated prior to actually impacting
with the earths surface, say at about 10 kilometres or so above the desert, thereby creating a
searing blast of hot air that melted the sand beneath it. Just such a soft-impact is theorized to have
possibly occurred in the famous 1908 ‘Tunguska Event’ in Siberia.
(The Tunguska event, like the LDG, still remains a complete mystery).
Yet another theory holds that perhaps a comet passed close to the earth and scorched the desert
sands with the friction of its passing or perhaps a meteorite glanced off the desert surface, leaving
a glassy crust and only a slight crater that was soon filled in by the sands. But the problem with
both these theories is that there are two known areas of LDG. Are we to suppose that there were
in fact, two of the cosmic projectiles that were travelling in tandem? And even so, how would it
be possible for a projectile to melt the outside of the ring but then still leave the centre field
completely intact and undamaged?
There is an interesting article that appeared in a British journal called Nature (no. 170) in 1952
entitled "Dating the Libyan Desert Silica-Glass" In it the author, Kenneth Oakley said:
“Pieces of natural silica-glass up to 16 lb in weight occur scattered sparsely in an oval area,
measuring 130 km north to south and 53 km from east to west, in the Sand Sea of the Libyan
Desert. This remarkable material, which is almost pure (97 per cent silica), relatively light (sp.
gin. 2.21), clear and yellowish-green in colour, has the qualities of a gemstone. It was discovered
by the Egyptian Survey Expedition under Mr P.A. Clayton in 1932, and was thoroughly
investigated by Dr L.J. Spencer, who joined a special expedition of the Survey for this purpose in
1934.
“The pieces are found in sand-free corridors between north-south dune ridges, about 100 m
high and 2&5 km apart. These corridors or "streets" have a rubbly surface, rather like that of a
"speedway" track, formed by angular gravel and red loamy weathering debris overlying Nubian
sandstone. The pieces of glass lie on this surface or partly embedded in it. Only a few small
fragments were found below the surface, and none deeper than about one metre
“While undoubtedly natural, the origin of the Libyan silica-glass is uncertain. In its
constitution it resembles the tektites of supposed cosmic origin, but these are much smaller.
Tektites are usually black, although one variety found in Bohemia and Moravia and known as
moldavite is clear deep-green. The Libyan silica-glass has also been compared with the glass
formed by the fusion of sand in the heat generated by the fall of a great meteorite
“Reporting the findings of his expedition, Dr Spencer said that he had not been able to trace
the Libyan glass to any source; no fragments of meteorites or indications of meteorite craters
could be found in the area of its distribution. He said: ‘It seemed easier to assume that it had
simply fallen from the sky.’
“It would be of considerable interest if the time of origin or arrival of the silica-glass in the
Sand Sea could be determined geologically or archaeologically. Its restriction to the surface or
nextflipdebug2
(nextflipdebug2)
#1