For over 20,000 years, Aboriginal Tasmanians have collected and traded beautiful, glassy rocks now known as Darwin Glass. But these tektites—formed 816,000 years ago by a meteorite impact—are more than just striking artifacts. Scattered across western Tasmania, Darwin Glass is the molten residue of a high-energy collision that vaporised rock, blasted molten debris into the sky, and formed a crater over a kilometre wide.
Uniquely, this impact site was waterlogged—covered in rainforests and swamps—which made the collision unusually “splashy.” The result: an enormous strewn field of glass, and a rich scientific mystery. Within some pieces of Darwin Glass, scientists have discovered organic molecules—plant-based polymers like cellulose and lignin—trapped and preserved in glass bubbles.
These findings suggest that tektites can act like time capsules, capturing snapshots of ancient life. They also raise intriguing possibilities for astrobiology: if life’s building blocks can survive inside impact glass on Earth, could similar glasses on Mars preserve traces of ancient Martian life? Could interplanetary collisions even spread life across the solar system?
Darwin Glass offers a powerful reminder: in the aftermath of cosmic catastrophe, we might find the clues to life’s endurance—and its origins.
In writing this video for SciShow, I was fascinated to discover just how widespread these impact glasses really are. With a chemical composition that matches the local rocks where the impact happened, the size of the strewn field usually corresponds to the size of the impact, and gives us a window into the catastrophic events of the past.
Unfortunately, the glasses are prone to weathering and breakdown, so we don’t have any from earths earliest periods, but I like to imagine that one day we will tap into a rich seam of tektites from the late Archean, containing the smoking gun for the origin of life. Hey, a girl can dream!
Leila Battison 
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