Its very origin has made fine pearls one of the most mysterious gems. It is no coincidence that the tiny beads found in the fossilized shells of ancient mollusks in a crater near Sarasota are called "meteorite pearls."
Scientists had to puzzle a lot over the mystery of the mysterious beads. Found "pearls" Michael Meyer in a quarry near the Florida town of Sarasota. At first, the researcher was interested in the shells of mollusks that once inhabited the ancient sea.
Riddle
However, under the microscope, small beads were found in each of them. Their dimensions did not exceed a millimeter. The pearls from the crater were not comparable to the grains of sand.
Meyer considered the find to be fossilized pearls, albeit very small ones. However, he made an unexpected discovery later. It turned out that all 83 balls were not made of calcium at all, as was assumed at first, but glass. I was also surprised by their spherical smooth shape.
In his research, the scientist was looking for a clue of the appearance of glass "pearls" in shells for a long time, but nevertheless abandoned hypotheses, deciding that he could not explain this secret. For 13 years, other scientists have tried to provide a scientific basis for the sensational find, however, they have not been able to offer a single plausible theory.
New research
A decade later, Meyer returned to the found "pearls". He decided to recruit colleagues from the University of South Florida, Roger Portell and Peter Harries. Studies of the structure of shell balls were carried out using high-tech electronic devices. As a result, the find was ranked as microtektites.
Tektites include melted pieces of glass of various shapes, usually small in size and with characteristic inclusions in the form of gas bubbles. The origin of the rock is usually meteorite, cometary, or asteroid. Such particles are formed from the heat when large cosmic bodies fall on the earth's surface.
It is tektite-like miniature spherical formations that are commonly found in sediments at the bottom of the ocean. Usually such spheres are distinguished by black color. However, greenish ones are no exception.
conclusions
The difference in composition is due to the different way of education. In bottle greens, iron or magnesium predominates, but there is little silicon and alkalis in them. In composition, microtektites resemble sedimentary rocks containing a little meteorite matter.
The "beads" discovered by Meyer turned out to be light. The composition of the Sarasot finds was the same as in the larger tektites. And according to the conclusion of scientists, once a huge meteorite fell on the coast of Florida. It was then that miniature dust balls fell into the shells.
The researchers concluded that the meteorite fell about 2-3 million years ago, but the place of its fall is unknown, as well as whether it left a crater behind.
If it was not possible to find the beads, it would be impossible to find out about the fall of a giant space body on the territory of Florida.
