Libyan Desert Glass (or Great Sand Sea Glass) is the result of sand on Earth having melted into glass following an enormously energetic asteroid or comet impact approximately 29 million years ago at the border region of what is today Libya and Egypt. The formation of Libyan Desert Glass and other tektites was long considered a mystery with some researchers believing they had originated on the Moon — a notion since debunked. Scientists today agree such glass formations (whose name comes from the Greek tektos, meaning “melted”) all formed as a result of collisions of cosmic bodies with the Earth. To melt the sand, temperatures of more than 1600° C (2900° F) are required; lava flows at the Earth’s surface are nowhere near that hot. In addition, meteorite particles have been detected in specimens of Libyan Desert Glass. As is the case with all tektites, extraordinary heat resulting from massive impacts liquified the ground. Tektites are named after the locality in which they are found, hence Australites, Indochinites, Philippinites, Moldavites, etc. The higher the silica content of such impact glass, the lighter the color, and so Libyan Desert Glass — derived from sand and containing 98% silica — is sunny yellow; moldavites from the Moldau River Region of the Czech Republic with 80% silica cover a range of greens. Libyan Desert Glass was used to make tools during the Late Pleistocene epoch and was used as jewelry especially scarabs in the Pharaonic Period. Samples of Libyan Desert Glass were found in King Tutankhamun’s tomb.

Hued in a variegated smoky yellow, and surprisingly translucent for a specimen this size and depth (see second image), this is a natural glass specimen, the result of sand in the Sahara Desert having melted due to a massive asteroid impact on Earth.
The surface of this aesthetic form is highly textured; select areas appear to evoke a frothing of molten glass. Worthy of any museum collection, now offered is an artifact of a cataclysmic event frozen in glass: the largest piece of Libyan Desert Glass known.

Christie's would like to thank Dr. Alan E. Rubin at the Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles for his assistance in preparing this catalogue.

425 x 360 x 235mm (16.75 x 14.25 x 9.25 in.) and 26.445 kg (58.25 lbs)