The land these specimens were found on is in what is called ‘the Splatter zone’ for the Chesapeake Meteorite/Bolide Impact. The Chesapeake Bay Meteorite/Bolide struck the eastern shore of North America about 30 million years ago. After extensive research we believe this quartz was created by the impact of that bolide and over years of environmental change (erosion, earthquakes etc.) these pieces were finally exposed. Scientists and professors from UA, Nasa, Seti started researching Meteorite impact on minerals (quartz) back in 2020 but could not find anything for the Chesapeake Bay Meteorite due to most of it being covered due to environmental change over the years. This quartz matches the properties of what they found in their studies so we reached out to those folks and got one reply back. He was very interested and asked for samples. We sent them and hope to hear back soon on what they find.

What we know now: The quartz was impacted by such heavy heat and pressure that it melted and reformed so quickly that bugs and micro organisms were trapped in some of these specimens. Micro gemstones hit so hard that they tunneled into the quartz showing ripples until it cooled, causing them to stop. There is patterns stamped on the surface of some pieces that are out of the normal patterns that would be seen in maybe Elestial or Skeletal quartz. They give the appearance of being “stamped”.  The quartz has bubbles/pockets that have bubbles within them. This can normally be seen in some crystals however, when looking through a microscope, these bubbles were caused by melting, reflowing and rapid cooling of the quartz. The surface of some of these specimens have the lattice pattern similar to that of meteorite which is outside the normal for quartz. The DNA structure has been altered by some kind of shock or impact.

The Finding: These specimens were found in an Virginia County known for Sand mining and not much more. A man was clearing layers of dirt and debris on his land to expose a possible path when his tractor rake hit something that sounded like metal. There it was, a piece of a rock poking out of the dirt. It was shiny so he dug some more and it ended up being a 6 foot divit with a trail of “rocks” as Ray called them. Two boulders, one about  30 inches long and 24 inches wide and another a little less in size, then a bunch that were the size of soccer balls and then smaller. Around the divit was what Ray and his neighbor called “moon rock”. Some pieces were covered in Sand glass that had cracked off in places as the crystal grew over the years. The outer surface had blues and pinks and a metallic sheen and so Ray tossed them into his garage and they sat in heap. After awhile he decided to reach out to find out what “these rocks” were.

You can read more about shocked quartz at https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/earth-and-planetary-sciences and https://www.anl.gov/article/highimpact-research-how-meteorite-strikes-may-change-quartz-on-the-earths-surface