FINALLY! Almost certainly found something worth keeping - a tektite!

Rific · May 20, 2017

Take a look and tell me what you guys think! This is only day 1 at the site, but I will be going back and I will keep you guys posted as to what I all find! I'm hoping to trace these tektites back to the meteorite, but these could be alluvial deposits. Could even be from the chesapeake bay impact! There isn't too much wear on the objects either, so I'm thinking these werent moved very far from their point of impact.

Tek1

Tel2

Tek3

Rific · May 22, 2017

The white grained inclusions are most visible in the first tektite along with amazingggg flow lines! Can't slag me now!

DDancer · May 23, 2017

I have a few austolites and have seen other tektites. I am not feeling that what you have is tektite material. What makes you so certain?

Rific · May 23, 2017

The flow lines on the 1 which are definitely from high speed travel and not just gravity, the color, the vesicles, the cristobaltite inclusions, and the texture of it. I have never felt something this smooth in my whole life. It is so smooth it almost feels wet. Nothing but soap n water has been applied to the first one and my finger just glides all over it...nothing like a glass and I've found plenty of that. I've been trained in finding all of the wrong stuff when I picked this thing up I just knew. This is a tektite...it has to be.

Eu_citzen · May 24, 2017

The color is quite typical of iron-rich slags. It can't be relied on for ID.
How do you know the inclusions are cristobalite? Curios.

I'd certainly follow the river upstream to find the source, which will aid a lot in the ID.

DDancer · May 24, 2017

Here is a rather good link on tektites. Home - TEKTITES
Being a glass its rather hard to identify broken up like your specimens are. Typically tektites of a region have defined shapes due to passage thru the atmosphere from their point of origin. I am not familiar with any specimens that show layering or inclusions but I don't rule it out as it is glass. Most identifications of tektites rely on shape and compositions related to where they are found.
Interested to see what you come up with further up river.

Rific · May 24, 2017

I of course drew my conclusions without proper testing, but I was just too happy I found it and wanted to share. I still think it is...this thing feels like its got wax on it its so smooth. Ive felt slag and it doesnt feel like this. Also, I've never seen slag with these white grain inclusions or having the gas bubble vesicles on the outside like this one. This guy doesnt appeared to be layered at all to me either..maybe you're just seeing the flow lines as layers. The melt lines contour around the piece just like tektites do. You can tell that an external force (air) acted on the object as a whole, and not as the object was forming. The flow lines start from the nose and get larger and wrap around.

edit: I know even in tektites the flow lines are technically still while the object is forming, but you know what I mean. The object wasnt dripping hot and drooled like that.