Abstract
AUSTRALIAN observers have been most interested in the article by Dr. L. J. Spencer1 on the origin of tektites, and more particularly on the origin of australites. In his reply to Mr. F. Chapman, Dr. Spencer2 suggests that the term tektites is synonymous with “aerial fulgurites”. That the australites are not aerial fulgurites is surely proved by their remarkably limited distribution. I am familiar with the slaggy siliceous material from the Henbury craters, but that bears no resemblance to the material nor the forms of the australites. It is nearly a century since Darwin first figured the australite and theorised as to its origin. Since then many theories have been put forward, but none has made so great an appeal for tentative acceptance as the meteoritic one. A positive test for nickel in australites would support this hypothesis.
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NATURE, 131, 117, Jan. 28, 1933.
ibid., 131, 876, June 17, 1933.
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FENNER, C. Origin of Tektites. Nature 132, 571 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/132571a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/132571a0
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