Tiny Aussie “dish”

Usually bragging rights go to the monsters, but there’s a tiny end of the spectrum that deserves respect as well. I suppose there exists a full gradational transition from macro- to microtektites, but at the scale readily discerned by the naked eye, this is the smallest complete Australite in our collection. This morphology is well-known, and generally termed a “dish”. It is the final remnant of a fully flight-ablated tektite—one that has literally turned inside out, essentially a flanged button that has converted all of its button to flange. Little or none of the primary re-entry material remains unmodified. One might argue that these are a distinctive sub-category of the tektite pantheon: a derivative second-generation form, not just flight-modified, but completely restructured. This specimen is from the Kalgoorlie region of West Australia. Approximately 0.1 gms, 7.9 mm diameter, author’s collection.