Indochinite

Indochinites — Relics of a 700,000 year old impact

The word “Indochinite” is used to describe a family of black, often shiny tektites that are found in a large area encompassing Indochina, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. Tektites are the result of an ancient and extremely massive meteorite impact estimated to have taken place about 700,000 years ago. The heat and pressure of that impact caused molten blobs of magma to be flung up into the air. Some of those pieces traveled thousands of miles before falling back to Earth, not unlike smaller versions of the meteorite that formed them. Many tektites have interesting round or drop-like shapes, which may have been a result of spinning or ablating in the air while still partially molten.