Researchers find mysterious patches of glass scattered across Chile's Atacama desert

Scientists have found strange patches in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile, which is one of the driest places on Earth, with a very high atmospheric temperature. Researchers have observed that the patches of shining rocks found across the Chilean Atacama Desert may be about 12,000 years old, formed during intense heat from an explosion of a comet. The proceeding of the study was published in the journal Geology, which suggests that an ancient comet exploding in the Earth’s atmosphere may have burnt the sand into glassy rocks.

Previous research, which was conducted a decade ago, revealed patches of black and green glass along a 47-mile corridor. However, researchers surmised the mysterious glass as melted soil, caused by hardening the minerals after severe heat. When a professor of geological sciences at Brown University, Peter Schultz, visited the site in 2018, he did not agree with the observations of the previous researchers, and he told Insider, "These samples look like somebody was out there-some sort of cosmic God-simply folding over glasses to make some bread. It was one of those things that made my hair stand on end."

Researchers find mysterious patches of glass scattered across Chilean desert

Researchers, including those from Brown University in the US, discovered that glassy rock found in the Chilean desert closely resembles the composition of material returned to Earth by NASA's Stardust mission, which found particles from a comet called Wild 2. The co-author of the study, Pete Schultz, said in a statement, "This is the first time we have clear evidence of glasses on Earth that were created by the thermal radiation and winds from a fireball exploding just above the surface. To have such a dramatic effect on such a large area, this was a truly massive explosion. Lots of us have seen bolide fireballs streaking across the sky, but those are tiny blips compared to this," Dr Schultz added.

In the latest study, which was published this week in the journal Geology, the scientists described the origin of glassy minerals as an exploding comet or comet-like object that fused the soil, leading to the formation of giant glass-like objects. It was estimated by the researchers that the explosion occurred approximately 11,500 to 12,300 years ago, during the time when hunter-gatherers inhabited the region and animals, or megafauna disappeared from South America. The research team is now trying to find out whether there's any correlation between the animals' disappearance and the explosion. "We have the evidence. We don't have the smoking gun," said Schultz. The researchers found that these patches of twisted and folded glass are across the Atacama Desert east of Pampa del Tamarugal, nearly 2 miles long and 0.6 miles wide. Based on the size of the patches, the team observed that the explosion was probably huge and capable of widespread destruction.

Image: Schultz et al., Geology, 2021