Round Impactite Spheroids - Part 2
Oblate impact spheroid (search on round impactite spheroids). In my encyclopedia of impact phenomena, I have so many of these I will have to start a new page, part 2 with this one as I have found the limit of web page size. They are the most posted impactite. It is one of many impact geometrics. This one is chert, but they come in most rock mineral types. The line are "false strata" in this case flow lines and it even has mosaic curvilinear crack lines. The iron on the surface is a common signature of impactites. These earth hitting meteors are so powerful the meteor iron is made into a plasma cloud and as a last step in impact rains down on the impactites. When magnified you can see the granular particle surface as the resolution of the photos is quite good. The configuration of these particles is called "Constellationing." The particles are the result of pulverization and sort to a common particle by distance. Keep in mind an impactite is a survivor rock and was far enough away to not be evaporated. The depth of this discovery indicates it could predate the Howell, TN Impact Structure which takes up all the lower counties of Middle, TN. Or it could have just been buried by the back rush of the sea 300 mya. There is a Silurian Impact exposure under the Howell Impact excavation. Magnification attached. So, let me take a moment to discuss concretion theory. First let me dispel grinding abrasion. This is not a Native American game ball its surface is irregular therefore not made by abrasion and they used round rock game balls. Precipitant chemistry - The production of precipitated silica starts with the reaction of a basic silicate solution with a mineral acid. Sulfuric acid and sodium silicate solutions are added simultaneously with agitation to water. The precipitate is small not big round balls and where does the Sulfuric Acid come from? Wouldn't a sea of sulfuric acid be toxic yet Middle, TN is full of sea creature fossils. 28 Feb. 2026.
Patricia D Naumann ·
Hi all! A friend in heavy equipment found this while digging an 8 acre pond. It came from S. Central Tn. It is very heavy for its size. Pics dry and wet with measurements. He did some damage when the bucket of his backhoe hit it and trying to get it out of the ground. Was pretty deep. I have no idea what it is so I’ll consider just about anything right now. He calls it a UFO rock.
I think this is a made and unmade impactite. The Septarian layer seems to be the layer that unmade it. The smaller impact spheres arrived just after that. It does have a slate type impact ash appearance at this level too. The Septarian figures in quartz are a charged grounding in flight as quartz is a simi conductor but
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At high temperatures (up to ~1200 °C), ionic conductivity increases due to enhanced ionic mobility Mineralogical Society of America.28 Feb. 2026.
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Rockhounding
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Karl Patay ·February 26 at 9:38 AM ·
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I got this from a friend of mine. We have no idea what it is. It’s quite heavy but is not magnetic. It’s about 3 1/2 inches in diameter and 2 1/4 inches thick. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
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524 gr or 18.48 oz
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Thank you— with Denise Lloyd-Patay.
Direction from left to right you can see bedrock breccia divided by the charged Septarian fractals then the iron content as well as the smaller impact sphere impalements going to the right. 28 Feb. 2026.
Oblate impact nodule. Type 2 impactite, earth surface sand and iron from the meteor. The iron is in two states of oxide the black (Fe3O4) and red (Fe2O3). The surface streaks are blast material directionally hitting the impactite. Shock is a resonate energy and cooks from the inside out like your microwave oven. As you can see the inside quartz is in a crypto to micro crystalline state and the iron has been separated outward by attenuation. The outside patterns are a granular crystal habit called Constellationing. The elongated shape is causes by velocity. Because of the crater cannon effect impact nodules can be ejected at twice the speed of the initial impact at around 20 miles per second.
Part 2 - No volcano could have made this type of specimen. It is too well differentiated for a simple melt process. Laboratory processes for the two oxides are complex. The complex forms of iron are found in "extinct" volcanos and are therefore not verified just speculative. It is highly likely that such finds are impact made. 4 March 2026.
I gound this other day looks like iron quirtz
Up splash "Impact Crater Cannon Effect." Attached is a high-speed photo of a liquid/liquid up splash in water. Why liquid/liquid? A meteor hitting earth at ten to twenty miles per second turns the two bodies into liquid because matter cannot withstand such high energy as a solid. The limit occurs in the crater bottom and sides, and the liquid is reversed by pressure as if a cannon. These pressures are measured in the Giga Pascals (GPa). The observed impactite formation pressures are found to be from 1 to 100 + GPa. The high end of this impact pressure is gas as liquid cannot withstand this high of a pressure regardless of the extreme heat as well. The gas phase further complicates the impact process, but the overall crater effect is liquid/liquid. Now notice in the picture the multi crater ring effect. That is a shock made sign wave with the cannon wall/crater wall bunching it up as it goes outward. This photo was taken early in the up splash effect but has started the reversal. 4 March 2026.
Now this is even earlier in the up splash before the cannon effect. Notice the fractal pattern outward. Fractals are an energy signature, they branch as the trunk form changes energy no longer able to support the trunk effect. It is a form shift physics, the same as lighting changing from fractal to ball lightning. As you can see here the flow is both ball and fractal. 4 March 2026.
And here we have it again only at a later stage with the up splash and crater rings. You see both the fractals and the ball form of energy in motion. 4 March 2026.
Now here we go with the artistic computer generated AI photo, but you see the cannon effect making the initial barrel. 4 March 2026.
You can see the differences here in an actual photo. The cannon effect remains for a short distance and the up splash breaks up more like a shotgun blast since the barrel is short. 4 March 2026.
Water drop collision. Falling drops of water. Splash effect after collision a falling drop with water Surface​​
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6000x4000px • 20" x 13.3" • @300dpi • 12.4MB • jpg
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ID 84556344
So lets back up a bit and look at the cannon being created in profile. This is what a crater looks like. It is significantly a liquid/liquid interaction. 4 March 2026.
Water drop photographed from below hitting the surface of the water Water Drop Hitting Water Droplets only bounce when the speed of collision with a surface is just right, creating a very thin nanoscale air cushion for it to rebound off. When a drop of water impacts onto a liquid surface 'pool' of water, we can observer one or more phenomena: This movement creates a downward force that can be greater than that of the. Water Drop Hitting Water. Ripple Photos - Download Free High-Quality Pictures | Freepik
Water Drop Hitting Water at Adela Spooner blog
Solid hitting water. Now many earth impacts occur in seas and oceans. This initial splash will become irrelevant as the solid finds solid earth. Yes there will be a tidal wave and much material pushed away but at 20 miles per second that will not be long enough for the kinetic crater cannon effect to overwhelm that effect with far greater energy. 4 March 2026.
Now lets add the additional effects of heat and electromagnetic energies. Hear you can see the inner transition to heat, plasma and the Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP). The high sudden ionization creates the EMP. Additionally, in a Earth Impact Kinetic Explosion there will be a high degree of moving particles creating what you see with volcanic lighting. An atomic bomb does create a blast cannon as these tests make craters. 4 March 2026.
This is an interesting study of dorp shape modifications. It is similar to what you see with a tektite chart showing form developments. 4 March 2026.
Co-flow microfluidic synthesis of liquid crystalline actuating Janus particles
Article
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Sep 2016
In this article the microfluidic synthesis and characterization of micrometer sized actuating Janus particles containing a liquid crystalline elastomer (LCE) is presented.
And here we have some of that shape development in an impactite as discussed in the above article. 4 March 2026.
Greg Peretti
Any ideas on this? Got it at an estate sale in a flat of assorted shells and fossils.
Impact sphere and catcher. The geometric banding is a shock agate type of harmonic. Rare. 10 March 2026.
Rockhounding
Found in a creek in southern Illinois. Egg shaped mass. Has strange geometric shapes on it - leads me to think it’s some kind of crystal type formation or concretion of some time. Next to a quarter for scale in one pic. Whole chunks maybe a little bigger than a softball. Lots of other small fossils in it. Too bad it has a couple gouges on top. Anyway, anyone have any idea what it is? Thanks for the help.
First, I want to discuss the matrix and thank the poster for such high-definition pictures. The matrix is shock white limestone. It is a proto marble with aerodynamic points indicating it was a liquid and mailable in flight as an impactite. It was once bedrock. If you magnify the picture, you can see the common grain particle structure called "Constellationing." In this particular case it is in a "Turing Pattern" configuration a binary rejection pattern (Alan Turing, 1952). The limonite spheres. Two are obvious one is buried with only a shell. Fe2O3 spheres like this are thought to be a diagenesis sedimentary rock. It is in fact a type of impact sphere, the iron coming from the impacting meteor as an expelled liquid impaling the bedrock matrix. I first encountered these iron spheres in the Howell, TN Impact Structure. They are highly variable as they are made in an explosion chaos. I maintain the world's largest encyclopedia of them (search on round impactite spheroids). Impact theory for these spheres has the advantage of providing source and mechanism. The assumptions and lack of good physics for sedimentary diagenesis are so poor as to be not scientific. For example, experiments in iron precipitation require a toxic solution and form thin layers not large spheres. An assumed biogenic process does not solve this and like sedimentary diagenesis assumes the presence of iron. The only confirmed sphere processes are 1. liquid drops i.e. impact spheres, 2. Cave and ice pearls. 3. Oyster pearls however they are never round! I might add that the abrasion theory is also completely bogus. It requires holding two axis firm to abrade a sphere. Magnification attached. 12 March 2026.
Sera concreción ferrosa o geoda??
Monzón de mapimi, Durango
That is a round impactite spheroid and catcher. The catcher is what is interesting here. It has a flow direction that was caused by the impact blast. It is called linear Constellationing. It is also making a flow point triangle consistent with the linear Constellationing. It appears the continuing blast blew away the missing parts of the spheroid. See attached.
Can someone tell me what this is?
Variations - Just like with impactites a meteorite can have variations of particular identifying features including surface melt. Crossover - This is a crossover type most resembling a round impactite spheroid. That is because it is actually a melt drop off of the fireball. 21 March 2026.
Leonardo VR ·March 19 at 8:30 PM ·
A couple of days ago, a meteorite fell in Ohio, United States, which seems to me to have been preliminary identified as a Eucrite, that is, a fragment of the asteroid Vesta.
Of all the recovered fragments, this one stands out in the hands of Roberto Vargas, a reputable meteorite hunter and merchant.
I've never seen a fusion crust with this level of detail. It's awesome that the aerodynamics of the meteorite were frozen in this fragment.
Roberto Vargas's spiny Ohio made me think of another meteorite I had seen a photo of originally around 20 years ago. I just found the photo again tonight where I had saved it.
Impact disk that has been hit by a small impactite projectile at high speed while the disk was still mailable. The top view shows the offset of the strike. These types of impactite collisions are ballistic of solids in nature. Other impactite collisions can be liquid. Is the whole disk a crater with rings? Yes. The impact energy is being absorbed as a gradient geometrically, an exponential type of absorption. It is a sign wave function. Unlike a large meteor hitting earth the projectile did not explode. 22 March 2026.
Mississippi fossils & artifacts
Found in a large creek. Any idea what it is? (About 3.5” in diameter and 2.5” thick)
Impact sphere variant. These types are elongated aerodynamically. The black is iron oxide from the meteor infused in it but the matrix is shock hardened piece of bedrock a shock marble. 22 March 2026.
BC Rocks, Minerals and Gems
Natural artifact? Pretty rock though.
Round impactite spheroid. The banding is from resonance. It is the same mechanism that makes shock agates but makes the simpler pattern because it is an impact sphere. 22 March 2026.
Jessica Oram ·
Found this at Green Briar Park in Cosby, TN. Figured it was obsidian and sandstone.
Round impactite spheroid variant. These are fast formed in earth impact explosions and are basically liquid drops like hailstones. Fast heat - Unlike a pressure heat (plate tectonics) or volcanic heat (thermal radiation), shock is like your microwave oven and heats quickly and also cooks from the inside out. Quartz and chert have different expansion rates which cracked the sphere open. The fractal striations in the chert are a fast outward energy signature. The mosaic cracks in the quartz are a confirmation that this all happened quickly causing a high change cooling. 23 March 2026.
Southern Idaho RockHounds
Found this in my grandma's rock collection. Told it was a geode but not sure. Any suggestions??
Two stage impact nodule. The charged boxwork was captured by impact breccia debris. 23 March 2026.
Septerian nodule encased in a Selinite crystal casing. Found in Prosper Texas.(more photos added of it together
Impact spheres from Meteor Crater, AZ, the Barringer Crater. 23 March 2026
Canyon Diablo spheres – Buseck Center for Meteorite Studies
Oblate impact sphere - Oblate impact spheres are elongated by velocity. Mosaic patterns - the patterns including the indention are caused by cooling shrinkage. Banding - Impact is a shock-based physics. Shock is a wave which imprints banding. Trace iron - trace iron is imparted by the meteor as a plasma in this case. It is one of the last events in an impact explosion falling as a mist. Shock marble - this was once bedrock now shock hardened to marble. Value - high, as this comes from a large earth impact and is less common. 24 March 2026.
Marc Richardson
I found this one digging on a site remediation not certain what it is Google lens seems to give a different suggestion for each image or imply it isn’t natural. Can anyone help identify it? It is cold to the touch very heavy, has raised circular nodules. Found in the foothills of western Alberta. Help please.
Resonate heat impact nodule. So, let's start with the oblate tiny egg-shaped inclusion. It is from an earth impact explosion and is elongated by velocity and captured by a larger liquid blob as expelled from the crater. Or the high resonance made the tiny egg making this more of a shock agate type. Overall aerodynamic flow - The entire rock and the interior has this egg like elongated shape, a classic teardrop indicative of high velocity as well as the high resonance forming the interior at the same time. The high shock made the interior voids and outline banding. OK, what is the mechanism physics? Shock resonance unlike your oven longer wave radiant heat or pressure heat cooks from the inside out like your microwave oven. Of course, it cannot be made by compressed tectonics because of the voids/vesicles. Why did it fall apart? Cooling stress cracked it in place where you found it eons ago. 26 March 2026.
Oden Wallace
I found this on a creek bank near my home in southeastern ky. What is it? The top cracked off when i picked it up and revealed this neat interior.
Round Impactite Spheroid from the Well's Creek Crater (20 miles or less away). The iron in it is from the meteor. These spheres are liquid drops made in the impact explosion. The impactite distance from the crater center can vary significantly based on the specific type of impactite and the impact event.
Shock pressures around the impact point can exceed 100 GPa, with peak pressures decreasing rapidly outward from the impact site.
The excavation flow and formation of the transient crater also affect the distribution of impactites, with pressures typically dropping from about 25–30 GPa to a few GPa over distances of less than a few hundred meters in small structures.
The shock effects preserved in impactites reflect the initial shock-wave distribution and subsequent excavation flow, which can lead to a wide range of shock effects in the target rocks. 27 March 2026.
Teresa Lewis Johnson
Found this round ball rock on a mountain near Cumberland Furnace, TN. Would you leave it or break it open?
From the topo map you can see the angle of impact which is directly toward Cumberland Furnace. 27 March 2026.
But hey look a here. Cumberland Furnace forms it's own basin crater also with iron mining. The iron industry in the western Highland Kim of Tennessee had its beginnings in the historical Cumberland Furnace locality, in Dickson County, where, in 1797, the first iron ore was dug and the first iron was made west of the Cumberland 27 March 2026.
https://pubs.usgs.gov › bul › report.pdf
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