Philippinites, or rizalites are

tektite Tektites () are gravel-sized bodies composed of black, green, brown or grey natural glass formed from terrestrial debris ejected during meteorite impacts. The term was coined by Austrian geologist Franz Eduard Suess (1867–1941), son of Eduar ...

s found in the

Philippines The Philippines, officially the Republic of the Philippines, is an Archipelagic state, archipelagic country in Southeast Asia. Located in the western Pacific Ocean, it consists of List of islands of the Philippines, 7,641 islands, with a tot ...

. They are considered to be about 710,000 years old on the average and generally ranging in size from millimeters to centimeters. Their age corresponds with the age of other tektites in the Australian strewn tektite field. In 1964, a very large philippinite, weighing with dimensions 6.5 x 6.2 x 5.2 cm, was purchased by the

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

Department of Astronomy. The heaviest philippinite ever found weighs in its splash-form, which is also the heaviest tektite of this kind.

Etymology

The term rizalite was named after the

Philippine province In the Philippines, provinces ( or ) are one of its primary political and administrative divisions. There are 82 provinces at present, which are further subdivided into component cities and municipalities. The local government units in the ...

Rizal Rizal most commonly refers to: * Rizal (province), a province of the Philippines * José Rizal, Filipino national hero whom the province is named after Rizal may also refer to: People * Akmal Rizal Ahmad Rakhli, Malaysian footballer * Atep Ri ...

where the first black tektites were rediscovered in October 1926 at

Novaliches Novaliches is a place that forms the northern areas of Quezon City, and encompasses the whole area of Caloocan, North Caloocan. Etymology The name Novaliches came from the name of the small village of Novaliches in the town of Jérica in Spai ...

(which was then part of Rizal). Although, it was only in 1928 that the term was proposed by American anthropologist H. Otley Beyer, dubbed as the father of Philippine tektite studies, to refer to tektites found in the Philippines. Philippinite has become the more favored term because other tektites were found in other areas of the Philippines such as the

Bicol region The Bicol Region, designated as Region V, is an administrative region of the Philippines. It comprises six Provinces of the Philippines, provinces, four on the Bicol Peninsula (the luzon#Southeastern Luzon, southeastern end of Luzon): Albay, Ca ...

and the town of

Anda Anda or ANDA may refer to: Places China * Anda, Heilongjiang, a city in Heilongjiang, China * Anda railway station, a railway station in Anda, China Iran * Anda, Iran, a village in Fars Province, Iran Norway * Anda, Norway, an island in Øksnes ...

in the province of

Pangasinan Pangasinan, officially the Province of Pangasinan (, ; ; ), is a coastal Provinces of the Philippines, province in the Philippines located in the Ilocos Region of Luzon. Its capital is Lingayen, Pangasinan, Lingayen while San Carlos, Pangasi ...

. Some early authors referred to Philippine tektites as "obsidianites" but that too has fallen out of use due to the introduction of the term philippinite by succeeding authors.

Uses

In ancient Philippines, tektites were used by early settlers in the Philippines as arrowheads and other tools as well as decorative purposes. During the Philippine Iron Age, due to the polish features of philippinites found in graves, it was evidenced that philippinites were used as amulets or charms. In modern times, it is generally used as a

collector's item A collectable (collectible or collector's item) is any Physical object, object regarded as being of value or interest to a collecting, collector. Collectable items are not necessarily monetarily valuable or uncommon. There are numerous types ...

Composition

The following table details the chemical composition of philippinite:

Notes

:# Splash-form tektites are tektites that are shaped like spheres, ellipsoids, teardrops, dumbbells, and other forms. They have shaped this way due to the ejecta or splash of silicate liquid following a

meteorite impact An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal eff ...

, scattering them to a distance up to thousands of kilometers.

References

{{Impact cratering on Earth Glass in nature Impact event minerals Amorphous solids Geology of the Philippines