09/12/2026
Check out these pieces!
No, not trinitite, Pica Asteroid Glass from Chile.
These are large pieces. The one on the left is how they look when dug. The one on the right spent a day in iron out.
From the internet:
"This is an impactite, Earth rock and soil profoundly affected by the collision of an asteroid or comet. In this case it is attributed to an apparent airburst from an incoming comet.
The heat and pressure were so intense it flash-melted the sand and trapped grains into this dark green glass, forming tubes, bubbles and unique flow patterns. Typically the top is the dark green color, while the bottom includes baked dirt, testifying to its authenticity.
Parent studies and extraterrestrial dust: First noted as massive glass blocks lying on the surface, Pica Glass was studied in detail by Roperch et al., 2017 and Schultz et al., 2021. Schultz and colleagues reported trace minerals similar to dust recovered by NASA's Stardust Mission to Comet Wild 2, including cubanite, troilite and calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions, consistent with a cometary source. (The Stardust Sample Return Capsule returned to Earth January 15, 2006, in the Utah desert.) The origin remains debated, but this remains the leading interpretation.
Pica Glass is similar in appearance to greenish Trinitite, the glassy material formed when the immense heat of the first atomic bomb (Trinity Test) flash-melted desert sand in New Mexico on July 16, 1945. Except, of course, Pica Glass isn't radioactive.
The blobs and vesicles are gas bubbles that became trapped when surface material melted and then rapidly cooled. These features are considered crucial evidence for one or more intense, ultra-high-temperature cometary airbursts over the Atacama.
The airburst would almost certainly have resembled the 1908 Tunguska Event. As with that catastrophe, it was likely observed — there is archaeological evidence hunter-gatherers were moving south at that time.
Only since the 1980s have scientists realized large impacts may leave craters and can profoundly affect rock, soil and sand. Only relatively recently have they concluded asteroids and comets can explode in the atmosphere, creating impactites like this beauty with its tubular vesicles and greenish coloration.
The event, 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, is linked to the Younger Dryas period and is important for planetary defense studies. The best evidence is that a comet entered the atmosphere and fragmented, creating multiple airbursts. The explosions generated intense heat, melting desert sand into distinctive folds, twists and flow lines sculpted by shockwaves and gale-force winds.
Pica Glass has been found exposed in patches in the Atacama Desert, near Pampa del Tamarugal. Studying it helps scientists understand the effects and risks of comet airbursts."
The government of Chile banned the export of this glass in 2018, which, of course, made me want some. 😆
I will be adding a pic of these to my trinitite site under the "fake trinitite" section. I have not seen anyone trying to pass these off, but with the shady dealers on the net it is probably only a matter of time. www.trinitite.com
