Libyan Desert Glass area

The Hypatia sample locality (Libyan desert)
The Hypatia stone locality
Libyan Desert Glass area
Libyan Desert Glass area
Most likely formed as a result of melting
of the Cretaceous sandstones from the area at ~29 Ma
The place where Hypatia was collected
‘Hypatia’ - carbonado-like material
Kramers et al, in press
Kramers et al, in press
Kramers et al, in press
MD-PianoTM 120
1 mm
0.1 mm
50 µm
Microdiamonds?
Kramers et al, in press
Raman spectroscopy of the carbonaceous matrix
~99 wt.% carbon, ~1 wt.% oxygen
2 major phases:
nickel phosphide
(Ni:P=5:1)
50 µm
iron sulphide
(Fe:S=1:1)
BSE
S
Fe
Mg
C
Al
Ni
P
Si
K
O
Ca
100 µm
Additional metallic (no oxygen) phases present in Hypatia
Al
50 µm
Zn
10 µm
Ag
20 µm
Ce+Si
10 µm
Fe
25 µm
La+Si
20 µm
argyrodite
Organics (extremophiles?)
50 µm
100 µm
25 µm
25 µm
Thermally unprocessed
carbon
From McCall, 2009
Discussion
The Hypatia stone’s chemistry and structure are most closely
reminiscent to that of carbonado diamond.
Noble gases isotopes data indicate that the Hypatia is a remnant
of a cometary nucleus fragment that impacted after incorporating
gases from the Earth atmosphere, having caused the formation of
the Libyan Desert Glass (Kramers et al., in press).
An unique mineralogy of the sample (diamond, nickel phosphide,
troilite, silicon carbide, along with various metallic inclusions) also
supports extraterrestrial genesis.
Furthermore, the mysterious development of organic matter in
the sample was most likely triggered by its unusual chemical
composition.