Glassy ejecta are associated to a limited number of impact craters, and yet hold key information about hypervelocity impact processes. Here we report on the discovery of a ∼650 km² impact glass strewnfield in the Central Depression of the Atacama Desert. These cm-sized splash-form objects, that we refer to as atacamaites, are essentially composed of a dacitic glass formed by high-temperature melting of local magmatic rocks, with the addition of a variable iron meteorite contamination, 5 wt.% on average. The most likely nature for the impactor is the IIAB iron group. The fission-track plateau method, on two samples, yielded a mean formation age of $7.83\pm 0.26$ Ma. No associated impact crater has been discovered so far, suggesting it may be a relatively small, km-sized crater. The glassy nature, aerodynamic shapes, elevated formation temperature, and low water content are reminiscent of tektites. However, their small size, heterogeneity, oxidation state, significant contamination by the impactor, and likely more proximal provenance distinguish them from tektites. Atacamaites have no equivalent among the few known terrestrial ejected impact glasses, and increase the intriguing diversity of such products that we propose to name “tektoids”.

玻璃状喷射物与数量有限的撞击坑有关，但仍包含有关超高速撞击过程的关键信息。在这里，我们报告了在阿塔卡马沙漠中央坳陷中发现了约 650 公里^{2 的}撞击玻璃散布场。这些厘米大小的飞溅形式的物体，我们称之为阿塔卡马石，基本上由当地岩浆岩高温熔化形成的英安质玻璃组成，并添加了可变的铁陨石污染，平均为 5 wt.% . 撞击器最可能的性质是 IIAB 铁族。裂变径迹高原法对两个样品的平均形成年龄为$7.83\pm 0.26$嘛。到目前为止还没有发现相关的撞击坑，这表明它可能是一个相对较小的公里大小的撞击坑。玻璃质的性质、空气动力学形状、升高的地层温度和低含水量都让人联想到 tektites。然而，它们的小尺寸、异质性、氧化态、撞击物的严重污染以及可能更近的出处将它们与陨石区分开来。Atacamaites 在为数不多的已知地面喷射冲击玻璃中没有类似物，并且增加了我们建议将其命名为“tektoids”的此类产品的有趣多样性。