Relationship between the abrasion of tektite clasts and their host sedimentary facies, Pleistocene, SW Poland

Abstract

This study reports on the occurrence of tektite clasts with a markedly different degree of abrasion in two different fluvial facies of the Pleistocene deposits of the Nysa Klodzka river near Paczkow, SW Poland. The question addressed by the study is whether the redeposited and differently abraded tektite glass clasts derive from different distances/sources, or whether their differing degree of abrasion relates to their different host sediment as the medium of river bedload transport. Laboratory tumbling experiments are used to estimate the progress of tektite abrasion with the distance travelled within a bedload sediment of the corresponding grain-size composition. The study concludes that there is a direct relationship between the abrasion degree of tektites and their host sediment facies, but it is not simple and straight forward, as a range of specific factors comes potentially into play. Their role is discussed and is recommended to be taken into account in an abrasion experiment design and in the interpretation of experimental results. The study suggests that the tektite clasts found near Paczkow were transported over a distance of about 2–4 km and were derived from denudation of the nearby Bardzkie Mts.