Rochette Pierre, Beck Pierre, Bizzarro Martin, Braucher Régis, Cornec Jean, Debaille Vinciane, Devouard Bertrand, Gattacceca Jérôme, Jourdan Fred, Moustard Fabien, Moynier Frédéric, Nomade Sébastien, Reynard Bruno
Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, IRD, INRAE, UM 34 CEREGE, Aix-en-Provence, France.
IPAG Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France.
Commun Earth Environ. 2021 May 17;2:94. doi: 10.1038/s43247-021-00155-1.
Tektites are terrestrial impact-generated glasses that are ejected long distance (up to 11,000 km), share unique characteristics and have a poorly understood formation process. Only four tektite strewn-fields are known, and three of them are sourced from known impact craters. Here we show that the recently discovered Pantasma impact crater (14 km diameter) in Nicaragua is the source of an impact glass strewn-field documented in Belize 530 km away. Their cogenesis is documented by coincidental ages, at 804 ± 9 ka, as well as consistent elemental compositions and isotopic ratios. The Belize impact glass share many characteristics with known tektites but also present several peculiar features. We propose that these glasses represent a previously unrecognized tektite strewn-field. These discoveries shed new light on the tektite formation process, which may be more common than previously claimed, as most known Pleistocene >10 km diameter cratering events have generated tektites.
玻陨石是由地球撞击产生的玻璃，它们被抛射到很远的距离（最远达11000公里），具有独特的特征，其形成过程却鲜为人知。已知的玻陨石散落场只有四处，其中三处源自已知的撞击坑。我们在此表明，最近在尼加拉瓜发现的潘塔斯马撞击坑（直径14公里）是在530公里外的伯利兹记录到的一个撞击玻璃散落场的来源。它们的共同成因通过巧合的年龄（804±9千年前）以及一致的元素组成和同位素比率得以证明。伯利兹撞击玻璃与已知的玻陨石有许多共同特征，但也呈现出一些独特之处。我们认为这些玻璃代表了一个此前未被识别的玻陨石散落场。这些发现为玻陨石的形成过程带来了新的认识，该过程可能比之前所认为的更为普遍，因为大多数已知的直径大于10公里的更新世撞击事件都产生了玻陨石。
