Glass balls on the coast of Florida .. Meteorites passed through here
Small glass balls found inside fossilized oysters that were tossed by waves from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean (Florida Museum)
Scientists suspect that the small glass balls inside the fossilized oysters that were thrown by the waves from the bottom of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the American Florida Peninsula are a sign that a meteorite threw a burst of these balls near the ancient peninsula, according to a study published on Monday, July 22. In the journal Meteorology and Planetary Science.
Researchers from the University of South Florida found dozens of tiny glass balls in fossilized clam shells - an invertebrate animal belonging to the mollusk family - at sites off the coast of Sarasota County on the Florida Peninsula.
Accidental discovery
The glass globes were discovered during a summer field project in 2006 led by Roger Portell, director of the invertebrate paleontology collections at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Mike Meyer, an associate professor of Earth systems science at Harrisburg University in Pennsylvania, and the study's principal investigator, was looking for other small objects, the shells of single-celled organisms known as benthic foraminifera, when he noticed the transparent glass spheres, which were smaller than grains of salt.
Analysis of the glass balls suggests that their origin is microorganisms, which are particles formed when the explosive impact of an extraterrestrial body sends melted debris into the atmosphere, and then this debris cools and crystallizes before returning to Earth in its current form in the form of crystals and glass pieces.
After the end of the field work, Mayer's curiosity about the glass balls, of which he collected 83 balls, continued, and he wrote to a number of researchers from different universities to get their opinion on the balls, perhaps one of them would have information about them.
The high content of sodium in the balls suggests a location very close to the impact of meteorites (Florida Museum)
remnants of meteorites
Meyer analyzed the elemental composition and physical elements of the spheres using light microscopy, imaging microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with secondary electron imaging, and X-ray spectroscopy.
Then he compared the discovered balls to igneous rocks, meteorite debris, and by-products of industrial processes, such as coal ash.
His findings indicated that the origin of these balls is extraterrestrial. The researcher believes that these glass balls are the product of one or more small meteorites that were not known before, which may have struck the region near the plateau that mediates the Florida peninsula.
Researchers believe that the history of the formation of these glass balls dates back to about three million years. These glass balls contain large amounts of sodium, which distinguishes them from other meteorites. According to the study, this high sodium content is interesting because it suggests a location very close to the impact of meteorites.
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