Libyan Desert Glass - Specimen

Locality: Great Sand Sea, New Valley Governorate, Egypt

On 29 December 1932, an Egyptian Desert Survey expedition led by P. A. Clayton was exploring the then-unmapped Great Sand Sea in western Egypt. There it came across lumps of natural glass lying on the desert floor. In 1934, the find was described in the Mineralogical Magazine: lumps weighed up to about 10 lb (4.5 kg), and smaller fragments were scattered over an area at least 80 by 25 km.

People had found the glass long before that. A piece of the canary-yellow glass was carved into the scarab at the centre of a pectoral (chest ornament) from the tomb of Tutankhamun.

The glass formed about 29 million years ago and is nearly pure silica. Melting silica takes temperatures above 1,600°C, hotter than any igneous rock on Earth. For decades, scientists argued over whether it was melted by a meteorite striking the ground or by an asteroid exploding in the air. In 2019, Aaron Cavosie and Christian Koeberl reported in the journal Geology that zircon grains in the glass carry the fingerprint of reidite, a mineral that forms only under the extreme shock pressures of a meteorite impact. No crater has yet been identified as the source.

This one of a kind Libyan Desert Glass specimen from Egypt features a darker smoky gray-green tone with translucent edges, glassy highlights, and warm earthy inclusions. This distinctive piece has a chunky natural form with a rugged surface, pitted texture, curved flow-like markings, small cavities, frosted areas, and naturally worn edges that give it a bold collector-grade appearance.

Libyan Desert Glass is a rare natural impact glass found in the Sahara Desert region near the Libya–Egypt border. It is valued by collectors for its unusual formation, high silica content, warm golden color, and connection to one of the world’s most famous desert glass fields. 

Libyan Desert Glass is commonly associated with transformation, manifestation, protection, clarity, and strong solar energy. Many metaphysical collectors connect it with the solar plexus chakra, personal power, confidence, and spiritual growth. It is often used as a stone for courage, higher awareness, and clearing stagnant energy.

Quantity: 1pc
Specimen Weight: 481g
With this product, you will get the actual stone in the photograph.