MARE METEORITICS

Name: Australite
Location: Australia

Australites are between 700-800,000 years old, are found in Tasmania and five provinces of Australia, spread in an east to west line across the continent. Many of them are of a peculiar button shape with a symmetry unique among tektites. Black and almost opaque, they are lower in silica than moldavites, except for those of high silica content from Tasmania. Some other tektites of Australia are shaped like boats or canoes. When the earliest tektites of Australia were discovered, their forms were so strange that they were attributed to the workmanship of the ancestors of the present aborigines.