Overview
- The peer-reviewed study in Earth & Planetary Science Letters identifies a previously unrecognized impact-melt glass type, dubbed ananguites, in South Australia.
- Argon dating of two samples places their formation at roughly 11 million years ago, separating them from the 788,000-year-old Australasian strewnfield tektites.
- The beads differ from australites with lower silica, higher iron–magnesium–calcium oxides, greater density, stronger magnetic susceptibility, and distinct bubble textures and trace-element ratios.
- Researchers reexamined 1969 NASA-reported chemical outliers and then screened the South Australian Museum’s collection, finding six matching specimens.
- No source crater has been located, with possibilities including burial, erosion, or misidentification, and the team proposes further geochemical and petrographic sampling to help narrow the impact site.