VOLKHOVITE: A NEW TYPE OF TEKTITE-LIKE GLASS

Abstract

Volkhovites are tektite-like glasses of mafic and ultramafic composition discovered in the fluvioglacial drift of the Valdai glaciation (10–60 ka ago) along the right bank of the Volkhov River (59°27′ N, 32°01′ E). Volkhovite particles are small in size (0.1–3.0 mm) and irregular in shape, with various microtektite aerodynamics (globular, droplike, and dumbbell-like forms). They are perfectly preserved, and, thus, postglacial in age. Sporadic volkhovite grains (up to 20 items per 1 kg of loam) were detected over an area 1.0 × 1.5 km2. Some samples from local spots 20 × 30 m2 in size are anomalously enriched, up to 1700 volkhovite grains per 1 kg of loam. Tiny Ti-Fe, Fe, and Cu-Au spherules, particles of quenched glass and cinder, and fragments of the Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks are spatially associated with volkhovites. The suggested cryptomagmatic model assumes that the glass and cinder are pre-Holocene in age, whereas volkhovites were formed in the post-glacial time as a result of the outburst of the slag-stone-melt-mud-gas mixture that ascended from the asthenosphere to the surface. Drops of the melt solidified in the air instantaneously to form tectite-like glasses, and the tuffisite-like agglomerate mixed with the fluvioglacial drift.