28,500,000 years ago, the skies above North Africa were lit up by an asteroid airburst hurtling through the atmosphere. The intense and immediate heat of this event fused the sands of the desert into a yellow green tektite known as Libyan Desert Glass.

This specimen is an authentic fragment of Libyan Desert Glass. The origin of this material dates back almost 30 million years, to the meteoritic event that created all pieces of LDG we have today. The pieces vary widely in size, shape, and color though most are between 0.75" and 1.5" (2.5-3.5cm) in length.

The glass is enclosed in a classic, glass-topped riker display case. The case measures 4 1/2" x 3 1/2" and comes with a small information card about the specimen and guarantee of authenticity issued by Mini Museum.

Note: We've tumbled these specimens slightly to remove sharp edges, but even though it is 28,500,000 years old it is still glass and there might be a few pointy places. In other words, be careful while handling this specimen.

Libyan Desert glass is classified as a tektite, a type of rock created from the impact of a meteorite. When the intense heat and pressure of an impact event occurs, it can fuse the surrounding sediments into a new material. In the case of Libyan Desert glass, the sands particles of the Sahara were instantly melted into this beautiful yellow green glass.

Another good example of a tektite would be Moldavite, a glassy green silica found around central Europe. Like LDG, Moldavite was formed from a meteorite impact as well, 15 million years ago.

The power of the impact not only creates tektites; it scatters them as well. The strewn field for Libyan Desert glass is hundreds of miles long, as the material was launched at extreme speeds across the planet's surface during its creation. It was likely still molten in the air during this journey, cooling during its descent to the sands.

Though new pieces of tektites are still being discovered, the total amount of this material is limited. Every tektite found can be traced to a specific impact event millions of years ago and there aren't any more being made. We're fine with that though, since the only way to make a new tektite would be to make a powerful meteor hit the Earth! 😂

Libyan Desert glass can be found distributed across a very wide area. This is due in part to it being flung from the impact site during its creation, but that's not the only theory behind its large distribution.

Some scientists have speculated that there may have been multiple explosions, increasing the area of effect. Recent surveys of the surrounding watershed have also provided strong evidence for distribution by erosion.

While the dunes of the Great Sand Sea may seem timeless, during the Early to Middle Paleolithic Era the region was often home to a wetter climate capable of supporting playa wetlands. Further to the south, in what is now one of the least hospitable places on earth, permanent lakes and savanna grasslands supported an even greater abundance of life.

Throughout the region, there is plentiful evidence of multiple periods of early human settlement and their own discovery of Libyan Desert glass. Like flint or obsidian, our ancestors shaped the glass into tools and decorative items.

Paleolithic cultures were not the only ones to use the glass either. In 1997, a mineralogist named Vincenzo de Michele identified the material used in jewelry pieces from King Tutankhamun's tomb as Libyan Desert glass. The glass was shaped into the body of a scarab centerpiece of a pectoral.

This 18th Dynasty find is unique among the gems of ancient Egypt, as it is the only known use of Libyan Glass. The scarab is part of a twofold representation of the sun-god, which in Egyptian mythology could be represented by both scarab and falcon.