Moldavite

Moldavite (Czech:Vltavín) is an olive-green or dull greenish vitreous substance possibly formed by a meteorite impact in Southern Germany (Nördlinger Ries), which would make it one kind of tektite. They were introduced to the scientific public for the first time in 1786 as “chrysolites” from Týn nad Vltavou in a lecture by professor Josef Mayer of Prague University, read at a meeting of the Bohemian Scientific Society (Mayer 1788). Zippe (1836) first used the term “moldavite” derived from the town of Moldauthein (Czech:Týn nad Vltavou) - now in Bohemia (the Czech Republic), from where the first described pieces came.