CA-PHOSPHATE INCLUSIONS AND PLATINOID RELICT GRAINS IN MUONG-NONG TEKTITES FROM LAOS AND IVORY COAST: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE AUSTRALASIAN IMPACT
Résumé
Tektites are small (cm-sized) reduced glasses of Earth’s surface material that have been melted and ejected by a meteorite impact . Tektites occur in five widely dispersed “strewn fields”. The Australasian strewn field is the youngest (789 ± 9 ka) and the largest, covering over 15% of the surface of the globe , yet it remains the only one without a clearly identified source crater. The vast majority of tektites are homogeneous glasses, but proximal layered samples, also known as Muong Nong Australasian tektites (MN-AAT), often preserve mineral inclusions that are a rich source of information, providing new insights into the source material, the thermal history of the sample, and the tektite formation process.