Water in tektite glass

Tektites contain about 20 ppm of water, whereas plausible terrestrial source materials contain about 10,000 ppm. The removal of the water cannot have taken place by the formation of bubbles and their rise to the surface, because the movement of the bubbles depends on the body forces (gravity plus acceleration). If these forces are kept low enough so as not to destroy the tektite, they will also be several orders of magnitude too low to move the bubbles out. Diffusion is numerically insufficient even when all allowances are made. Reduction of the water is not feasible and does not solve the problem of the removal of the end products. Volatilization followed by recondensation would oxidize the nickel-iron spherules and oxidize the FeO unless the pressure was low; but at a low pressure it would not be possible to condense objects of the size of tektites in a reasonable time. It is concluded that tektites are probably not the result of impact on the earth. They may have lost the water during formation as ablation drops from orbiting earth satellites, or they may have lost it when erupted as volcanic ash on the surface of some body with a very low atmospheric pressure, such as the moon.