The area impacted by the meteorite immediately melts and debris is splashed out in all directions, in some cases leaving the atmosphere. As the debris falls back to earth it partially remelts and forming a variety of shapes, which are often pit marked.

Tektites have been found only in certain parts of the world, spread over large areas called ‘strewn fields’, mainly in low latitudes. The three major areas are south-east Asia (especially Thailand and the Philippines), Australasia; Caribbean-North America; and Ivory Coast, West Africa. Many varietal names are given to Tektites from different localities.

Tektites are named geographically, i.e. Australites (Australia), Indochinites (Thailand & Cambodia), Thailandites (Thailand), Philippinites and Rizalites (Philippines), Javaites (Java), Billitonites (Billiton Island, Indonesia), Moldavites (Vltavins) from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Bediasites (Texas, U.S.A.).

After falling back to Earth as showers of glass, many tektites lay exposed to weathering and erosion at the surface or shallow depth.

The Australasian Strewn field is the youngest and largest of all the Tektite strewn fields, covering 10% to 30% of the Earth’s surface, and is believed to be about 790,000 years old. There are 26 known impact craters less than 1 million years old all around 2 Kilometres across, but it has been proposed that a much larger impact crater would have been necessary to create such a large strewn field. Suggested locations are Mekong Valley in Southern Laos and Cambodia as possible sites.

However, near the Mekong River in southern Laos there’s a Delaware sized plateau. Volcanic eruptions have created lava beds up to 1,000 feet deep. The scientists realised that’s thick enough to hide a large crater. The hunt is on. Tektite form in many shapes, ovals, rounds, spheres, teardrops, dog biscuit and dumbbells. Some Australites are quite unique having a flange button but are extremely rare.

Where to find Tektites in Australia?

Many thousands of Australites have been washed into shallow lakes or depressions and are now found on claypans, and shallow drainage depressions. Australian tektites (Australites) have been known and used as artefacts and ritual objects by Aboriginal Australians for over 30,000 years.

The earliest record of scientific study of Australian tektites is a Darling Downs, Queensland specimen given to Charles Darwin in 1836, when he visited Sydney on board the Beagle. Emus have been known to swallow Australites for gizzard stones which help grind up their food.

Glassy, molten rocks can also be produced directly by the high heat and pressure of a meteorite impact or just its shock wave, without projecting the molten material up into our atmosphere. Molten glass and rocks fractured by high pressure have been found near impact craters and are called impactites.

The Ries Crater in southern Germany has molten rocks containing high pressure forms of silica, while other sites have 'shocked' quartz showing strain and fracturing, pulverised rock flour and shock breccia (rock fragmented and compacted by shock).

Sometimes a yellow glass made from fused quartz sand is found in desert areas, 'Libyan glass' from the Libyan desert being a well-known example. Such examples are probably a result of an impact, but there may not be direct evidence of associated craters. In the Northern Territory of Australia, small rounded pieces of frothy, molten rock have been found at the Henbury craters, and rocks fractured into a regular 'shatter cone' pattern by intense, sudden pressure have been found at Gosses Bluff impact crater. Mt Darwin crater near Queenstown, Tasmania has molten glass (' Darwin glass') very much like tektites, but it has probably not travelled through our atmosphere.

Tektites have been carried as a Talisman by ancient people as a protective stone. Metaphysical Healers say that, physically, Tektites enhance and accelerate healing from illness and injuries. Sleeping with a Tektite under the pillow can also be emotionally calming. Please do your own research before using tektites a a natural remedy.