Moldavite

Moldavite (Czech: Vltavín) is a forest green, olive green or blue greenish vitreous silica projectile rock formed by a meteorite impact in southern Germany (Nördlinger Ries Crater) that occurred about 15 million years ago. It is a type of tektite. Rough moldaviteFrom Moldavia, Czech RepublicMoldavite Czech RepublicMoldavite Czech Republic Moldavite (Czech: Vltavín) is a forest green, olive green or blue greenish vitreous silica projectile rock formed by a meteorite impact in southern Germany (Nördlinger Ries Crater) that occurred about 15 million years ago. It is a type of tektite. Moldavite was introduced to the scientific public for the first time in 1786 as 'chrysolites' from Týn nad Vltavou in a lecture by Josef Mayer of Prague University, read at a meeting of the Bohemian Scientific Society (Mayer 1788). Zippe (1836) first used the term 'Moldavite', derived from the Moldau (Vltava) river in Bohemia (the Czech Republic), from where the first described pieces came. In 1900, F. E. Suess pointed out that the gravel-size moldavites exhibited curious pittings and wrinkles on the surface, which could not be due to the action of water, but resembled the characteristic markings on many meteorites. He attributed the material to a cosmic origin and regarded moldavites as a special type of meteorite for which he proposed the name of tektite. Because of their difficult fusibility, extremely low water content, and chemical composition, the current consensus among earth scientists is that moldavites were formed about 14.7 million years ago during the impact of a giant meteorite in the present-day Nördlinger Ries crater. Splatters of material that was melted by the impact cooled while they were actually airborne and most fell in Bohemia. Currently, moldavites have been found in an area that includes southern Bohemia, western Moravia, the Cheb Basin (northwest Bohemia), Lusatia (Germany), and Waldviertel (Austria). Isotope analysis of samples of moldavites have shown a beryllium-10 isotope composition similar to the composition of Australasian tektites (australites) and Ivory Coast tektites (ivorites).