Dumbbell Shaped Australite from Port Campbell, Victoria

Abstract

AbstractA dumbbell shaped australite from Port Campbell, western Victoria, weighing a little over 5 grams and with a specific gravity of 2.381, possesses two gibbosities of unequal size and remnants of a circumferential flange with the same width in the waist regions as around the two unequal gibbosities.The anterior surface that faced down the flight path during high speed entry through the earth's atmosphere shows an unusual series of flow ridges in the aerodynamic sculpture pattern that extends from the stagnation point region of the larger gibbosity, across the waist region, and across the smaller gibbosity to its distal end. Such a series of flow ridges indicates that the trim of the dumbbell of tektite glass was generally broadside‐on, but with the front pole of the larger gibbosity somewhat in advance of that of the smaller gibbosity, so that the long axis of the form was at a small angle to the normal to the flight path direction.