A tektite fragment discovered in the Central Indian Basin

Abstract

On the basis of various lines of evidence, tektites are now considered as glassy objects generated by meteorite impacts, distributed in four known strewn fields, of which, the Australasian tektite strewn field is the youngest (0.77 Ma) and the largest encompassing 1/10 of the Earth's surface. Tektites of this strewn field exhibit morphological differences in different geographic domains, such as the blocky, layered Muong Nongtype tektites in the Indo-China region in the north, splash form types in the centre and the aerodynamically ablated forms in Australia in the south. Although microtektites, which are microscopic counterparts of tektites (< 1 mm) have been found in over 40 sites in the oceans, its occurrences are known only on land but for rare exceptions. The finding of a tektite of the Central Indian Basin (CIB) are reported here.