It was first described in a scientific paper in 1933 and is known as Libyan desert glass. But none are as rich in silica as Libyan desert glass, nor are they found in such large lumps and quantities. One polymorph of ZrO2 that we observed in Libyan desert glass is called cubic zirconia – the kind seen in some jewellery as a synthetic replacement for diamonds. Such pressure and temperature conditions provided us with the proof for the meteorite impact origin of the glass. They are too far and too small to be considered the parental craters for such massive amounts of impact glass, all concentrated in one spot.

Source: Libya Today December 03, 2023 16:18 UTC