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| Tektites being sold at World Treasures for as low as 100 pesos |
TEKTITES are unclassifiable with earthly rocks, and so
are thought to be of cosmic origin.
Philippine Magazine November 1935 issue called Philippine
Tektites as Rizalites (perhaps since
many specimens came from Rizal Province)
Mabuhay Magazine in an article entitled "ALIENS THAT CAME TO STAY"
authored by Roland Hanewald have fully explained various theories about
tektites.
No one as yet has put a claim on having discovered the
origin of tektites and lip to now science has yet to make an official
declaration as to the source of tektites. One theory if. that tektites came
from the moon created by the impact of a meteor that slammed into the lunar
surface and may have formed the crater
Tycho - some 700,000 years ago which still is visible on earth until today.
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Another theory is that tektites were flung into space,
perhaps as high as earth orbit, when giant meteorites crashed into the surface
of our planet. Tektites are however known to be only confined to few geographical
areas on earth, such as Eastern United States, Moldavia in Czechoslovakia, Ivory
Coast in Africa and Australia and almost all of Southeast Asia, particularly
the Philippines. Tektites (derived from the Greek word tektos, meaning "molten")
must have had a very "hot" encounter with other extraterrestrial
objects because tektites - based all their physical and chemical properties -
do not fit into any geological "map" of the earth. The physical
composition of tektites shows their resemblance to obsidian (hard volcanic glass), but their
chemical content shows that they are, well, nothing but glass. Scientific
evaluations are that tektites could only have been formed in temperatures
higher than any of the recorded volcanic events all earth. These must have been
"flying about under almost zero gravity conditions for at least short
periods during their formative phase, because of gravitational force, materials
formed on earth exhibit a definite crystalline direction. The ultimate proof of
the absence of gravitational influence is the hardness and strength of an
object - which is the unique characteristics of tektites.
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| Philippine tektites are know as RIZALITES |
Tektites are out of this world so to speak and a mystical "aura" surrounds the
existence of tektites. Primitive people believed that these are "messengers from the skies" and
these were first mentioned in the writings of the Bohemian Society of Sciences
in 1787. Some "moldavites", as they were originally called, were
first unearthed in today 's Czechoslovakia. Their discovery "differed
considerably from obsidian". The origin of modavites long remained a
mystery but because or their bottle-glass color, they came to be popularly
known as bou- teil-Ien-stein ("bottle-stone")
. Jewelers in Central Europe later sold cut and polished moldavites under the label
"pseudo-chrysolite" or "warer-chrysolite".
Button-shaped objects of greenish-olive-brown glass were
then discovered in Australia and Tasmania and the first such specimen to be
mentioned in Western recorded history was described and illustrated by Charles
Darwin in the middle of the 19th century wherein he referred to his specimen as
an “obsidian-bomb" Today 's literature term tektites as "Darwin glass".
The Dutch thereafter reported some strange black nodules
which they called glas-ko-gels, or "glassballs".
Regarding their origin, the Dutch then believed that glass-ko-gels might have
come "from the volcanoes of the moon".
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Surface texture may have deep grooving and winding
channeling into the surface.
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"The Philippines
is perhaps the only country in the world to have received the largest share of tektites that could
have rained in Austral-Asia some 700,000 years ago. It is reported that more
than one million pieces of tektites have been dug up so far during construction
works, unearthed by farmers, or recovered by gold partners in the Philippines.
This is more that the total tektite find for the rest of the world. About two thousand years ago, early Philippine
man, as evidenced by archaeological excavations, had already prized the
incomparable hardness of tektites and fashioned the "refuse from the stars" into primitive but lasting handtools."
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| Philippine tektites have different shape and sizes |
"When man-made metals reached the Philippine island
from China, tektites were turned Into keepsakes greatly valued for their
magical powers and mystical properties. Anybody who possessed a tektite was -
and still is - regarded as having a charmed life endowed with the power not
only to bewitch but also to afflict enemies with sickness, or even death. Some
people swallow tektite hoping to relieve pain and cure diseases. This is,
however, not an exclusive Asian custom, as tektite collectors from Europe have
assured. There is no mineral collectors' fair anywhere in the world, they
contend, without some people besieging the stands hoping just to touch a
specific tektite, or to obtain a bit of ground-up "star-refuse" as a remedy against all sorts of afflictions-
from cancer to impotency ... but
mainly the Iatter." -Mabuhay
Magazine.
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| Tektites are made of crystal like glass material |
A curious Philippine lore, is that tektites attract gold,
thus leading the locals to believe that these are asawa ng ginto, or gold's mate. Being of high specific gravity,
tektites will follow the course of topographic erosion like gold, and both tend
to accumulate as strange bedfellows in diluvial deposits. Dealing in tektites
is indeed one way of making a private gold collection increase, and international
collectors who indulge in this peculiar hobby trade tektites at a dollar or so
per gram, sometimes more, depending on the size, shape, and other unique
features. Yet the price is cheap since those little black "ETs" may
have come straight from the moon. The Apollo lunar missions in '1960's where
some 200 kilograms of lunar rock had been carted away, NASA's bookkeepers
compute how much the stones were worth, transport and all their figure, $73,000 per gram.
By: Jose M. Escano
