Hard rain on Libya

March 21, 2011 7:05 AM

The Great Sand Sea in Libya preserves some remarkeable meteoritea. Amazing though these are, none as enigmatic as the Libyan desert glass.

Missiles and bombs are not the only things falling from the skies over Libya. The great Libyan desert, part of the Sahara, is a remarkeably unchanging environment in places and contains the evidence of thousands of years of celestial rain.

One area, however, yields something much stranger; Great Sand Sea Glass.

Vulcanism, Ancient meteorite impact, ancient thermonuclear strike?! The debate about the origin of the glass is ongoing, but Tutankhamun provides a special contribution.

posted by BadMiker (9 comments total)

Thank you! This fits in with some research I am doing for a book.
posted by Guy_Inamonkeysuit at 7:52 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

This makes me think of The Sandman.
posted by georg_cantor at 9:32 AM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Very, very cool. thanks for posting this!

Now I wanna go...
posted by dendritejungle at 10:50 AM on March 21, 2011

Oh great, something else for people to crap up and sell on Etsy.

(I kid, I kid! This is gorgeous...)
posted by bitter-girl.com at 2:04 PM on March 21, 2011

Can't wait to see how those dorks from Meteor Men fill an entire show looking for meteors in plain site.
posted by punkfloyd at 3:29 PM on March 21, 2011

Alternatively, is it possible that the vitrified desert is the result of atomic war in the ancient past? Could a Tesla-type beam weapon have melted the desert, perhaps in a test?

I swear that I've played that videogame already.
posted by Halloween Jack at 3:38 PM on March 21, 2011 [1 favorite]

Some of this stuff ys very beautiful. I too want to thank you for this post.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 7:23 PM on March 21, 2011

Really interesting stuff, and the material itself looks beautiful. Assuming it's a silicate glass its composition would be like opal and it would have some similar visual qualities. Fun to ponder. I'm itching to go hunting for rocks now...
posted by kinnakeet at 5:07 AM on March 22, 2011

See also
posted by Dillonlikescookies at 12:42 AM on March 23, 2011