Tektite from Thailand

A tektite from Thailand, a natural glass with a deep black luster and a characteristically jagged, pitted surface.

Tektites form when a large meteorite strikes Earth, and parts of the melted terrestrial rock are hurled back through the atmosphere as glowing drops. During their flight, these drops solidify into glass and land a few seconds later as small, sometimes drop-shaped pieces.

The Southeast Asian tektite fields date back to an impact approximately 790,000 years ago, the crater of which has not yet been clearly identified. The pieces known as Indochinites are distributed across a strewn field from Thailand to Australia.

Unlike a classic meteorite, tektite does not consist of extraterrestrial material but of terrestrial rock. A trace that tells the story of the event itself and the Earth at the same time.