Tektites a natural rock glass

Is a tektite a meteorite?

Tektite is a natural rock glass, a glass that is formed in nature by the melting of rocks at very high temperatures.
Tektite is also called "cosmic glass", which suggests that tektite is a rock from outer space, like meteorite. This is not the case. Tektite is a type of rock glass that was formed by a meteorite impact. The meteorite impact creates such a high temperature on the earth's surface that the surrounding rock and material is melted and thrown into the air as molten rock droplets. These droplets cool in the air and fall back to earth, sometimes kilometers away from the meteorite impact. Depending on the material that was at the site of the impact, the rock glasses are given different colors and sometimes different names. The best known tektite is moldavite (green) and indochinite (brown-black).

What is an indochinite?

An indochinite is a tektite, i.e. a rock glass that was formed when a meteorite hit the ground. Mainly sand was burned at such an enormously high temperature to form this indochinite.
The indochinite was formed in northern Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. Probably about 750 thousand years ago during a meteorite impact in today's Tonkin Basin.
The color of the indochinite is relatively black in thicker pieces, in thinner indochinites also slightly brownish due to the partial transparency, similar to obsidian.
An interesting, wild surface makes the indochinites, these tektites, very interesting. Some are fused into a pin shape, others are rather thinner, which are then often translucent. . Some are teardrop-shaped or even double teardrops, like a rounded dog bone. Often with deep fusion holes, which look like impressions of a ball (remaglyphs). Indochinites are relatively rich in silicates.
The indochinites from Thailand and Laos are also known as thailandites.
 
A very beautiful soft appearance for these black stones. The shape and surface of the tektite rough stone pendant are also designed by nature, structured on one side and rather smooth on the other. The tektite rough stones were worked into a gemstone pendant with a large hole. If you wear the tektite rough stone pendant on a leather strap or a silver chain, the gemstone tektite becomes a jewelry pendant.

According to Wikipedia, 4 large tektite strewn fields are known worldwide:
- The largest of these is the Australasian field: Laos, northern Thailand: Khon-Khaen, near the Laotian border, Vietnam and Cambodia In South Australia, the Philippines, Indonesia to China: This is called the Australasian field.
For decades, the exact impact site was not found, but now in 2020 researchers from the Earth Observatory of Singapore suspect that the impact crater was buried under a layer of volcanic rock on the Bolaven Plateau in Laos.