Offered here is one lot of 23 different impactites, Earth rocks and soil affected (sometimes profoundly so) by the enormous temperature and pressure of large asteroid and comet impacts. Some are small and some large. Their total weight comes to 276-grams (almost 1/2-pound) so I can ship as a 12-oz. package anywhere within the USA via First Class Mail for only $5.35. Shipping to Canada via First-Class Package International Service will cost $17.25. Shipping anywhere else in the world (for example, Germany, Russian Republic, Latvia, France, etc.) via First-Class Package International Service will cost $24.00.

I've shown both sides of each piece. One or two are best observed from one side. The rest are either three-dimensional rounded individuals equally lovely from any angle or slices. The flattened series of exquisite fine-grained Steinheim shatter cones show fine-grained "horsetail structures" on three sides. Note the one-cm (~3/8-inch) brass cube for scale is not included. I will bag each specimen separately along with an approximately 5.0-cm (2-inch) printed paper label with important information about each site.

I've included general about impactites in italics directly below. Please go online to find out more about each kind of impactite and the names of the sites. 

Specifically, here is a) slice of Ries, Germany suevite from Bollstadt; b) round rock from Weaubleau, Missouri, USA; c) Ries, Germany suevite from the Zipplingen Quarry; d) shatter cones from Serpent Mound, Ohio, USA; e) pyramid-shaped exquisite fine-grained horsetail shatter cones on all three sides (they point in opposite directions suggesting multiple shockwaves, perhaps reverberated from massy rocks below) from Steinheim, Germany; f) chunk of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada Anthraxolite, a highly anthracitic carbonaceous mineral; g) a small individual Ries, Germany "flaedle," an aerodynamically-sculpted impact melt glass bomb; h) an individual Muong Nong layered tektite from the Lao People's Democratic Republic; i) a small fossil shell rostrum of a Belemnites, species (an extinct fossil cephalopod) sliced by shockwaves from Ries, Germany; j) a small individual translucent tektite from Thailand; k) a complete small Australite tektite core with aerodynamic sculpting from the Nullarbor Plain, Australia; l) Monturaqui impact crater melt glass from Chile; m) Lonar, India impact crater melt glass; n) Aouelloul impact crater melt glass from Mauritania, Northwest Africa; o) Henbury, Australia crater impact melt glass; p) a tiny slice of Popigai, Russia suevite; q) a very nice blob of melted Darwin Glass; r) slice of Sudbury, Ontario, Canada suevite, the oldest suevite in the world; s) layered impact melt from Lake Jänisjärvi in northwest Russia; t) Rochechouart, France suevite; u) impact melt from Gardnos, Norway; and, v) a nice thick slice of Glover Bluff, Wisconsin, USA impact breccia.

I would love to keep these specimens, however, now that I’m actually retired after sixty years of collecting, I must be getting rid of some of my most cherished possessions. 

Of course, if you win more than one of my auctions I can usually put everything in a single carton to defray the cost of multiple shipments. This may delay shipping by as much as ten days depending on the time it takes to wrap and combine multiple items. 

A Very Brief Introduction to Impact Cratering on Earth

There is, quite understandably, a growing interest in large meteorites, asteroids, and comets. That such large objects have occasionally struck Earth in the past and will continue to do so in future is something mainstream scientists have only fully begun to realize since about 1970. At present, there are 190 recognized remains of impact structures. Every year, one or two potential new ones are discovered. Perhaps as many as one hundred sites are awaiting study. Confirmation of new impact craters is by no means a speedy process as there are probably fewer impact crater geologists in the world altogether than workers at the average McDonald's Restaurant. Further, as 95% of Earth is uninhabited, most sites are located in remote regions.

The pressure of impact from a comet or asteroid is equivalent to hundreds of Hydrogen bombs detonating simultaneously. The destruction is far greater than that from an earthquake, tsunami or super-volcano. The combined pressure, heat, and physical forces unleashed by such impacts may obviously affect local or area Earth rocks, sand, and soil, sometimes in profound ways. Long after a meteorite impact crater has disappeared from the landscape, having been buried and hidden, or exposed and eroded away, these "impactites," may yet remain.  
 
The impact creates a crater far larger than the size of the impacting body. Local and area rock and soil closest to the impacts are vaporized. Small craters look like simple bowls. Larger ones may contain a central uplift or peak and multiple rings. Melted fragments may be tossed at high speed becoming aerodynamically-sculpted as impact melt glass bombs and crater impact melt glass. Sand and soil may quickly cool into layers of impact melt glass.

Tektites are a variety of impactite formed from area sand and soil that was melted on impact, sent high out of the lower atmosphere resulting in loss of water making them far drier than volcanic obsidian glass which they somewhat resemble, then aerodynamically sculpted as they plunge back to Earth sometimes many kilometers (miles) from the impact crater. Some (Moldavites) are associated with known impact craters (Ries, Germany). Others such as the Thai and Laotian ones offered here are from a yet-undiscovered impact crater.
 
Shattered and melted rocks may be deposited many km (miles) away. Over time the mix of dust and area rock fragments may harden into a new rock layer called impact breccia. Impact breccia containing pieces of glass is called suevite.   
 
Another kind of impactite is known as shatter cones. Shock waves from the impact continue to speed below the newly formed melted and excavated fresh crater leaving "fossilized shock waves" in layers of rock far below the crater. The points face upward toward the direction of shock and are connected by striae or lines extending down to a wider base in a clear “horsetail structure.”