At the time, I didn't realize just how difficult it could be to identify a mineral sample. I now know better; the only precise method is X-ray Diffraction. I had sent samples of the strange material to many researchers but while most found it unusual, they couldn't positively identify what it was. Some thought it was a form of agate (Chalcedony) and one said it looked like igneous calcite. I sent samples to the BLT research team and they found it interesting but nothing definitive. Finally I sent some to Phyllis Budinger who performed a IR spectra as well as microscope pix.
She wrote: "The microscope pix do suggest a melted mineral, I.e. glass-like. However, I was quite surprised at the infrared spectrum. It suggests quartz still in crystalline state. I need to take more spectra and study the data more in-depth. So don't take this as the end result. XRD should resolve this issue."
She suggested Sampath Iyengar, a PhD chemist, with a degree in mineralogy. He owns a lab in Wildomar, CA. and is considered an expert with XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) which is a powerful technique for identifying minerals. I send Dr. Iyengar a sample of the material and he agreed to test it for me. The results were unequivocal: the material was Cristobalite, a high temperature indicator, forming at above 1450C. It was a melt on top of the rhyolite and not formed from the rhyolite. Cristobalite is never found under the conditions that exist at the crash site.
"Cristobalite occurs in igneous rocks located in areas of volcanic activity. It rarely occurs in detectable samples. Some localities where noticeable material has come from are: Cerro San Cristobal, Pachua, Mexico (the origination of its name); Little Lake, Coso Hot Springs, Inyo Co., California; the San Juan Mountains in Colorado; Obsidian Cliff in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming; Mt. Lassen in Lassen Volcanic National Park in California; and Crater Lake National Park, Klamath Co., Oregon."
http://www.minerals.net/mineral/silicate/tecto/quartz/cristobl.htm
The Crash Site
We found several areas where the sand and gravel were covered with cristobalite. The site is part of an open range; much of the area has been trod by cattle for the last fifty-five years and the sand has been disturbed by their wanderings but in some inaccessible places there were mats of cristobalite covering sand and gravel as large as five feet by ten feet.. It seemed obvious to us that no ancient volcanic event could account for this phenomenon. Some matted cristobalite was an eighth of an inch thick and not only covered sand and gravel but dirt as well.
There is not any evidence that this site was once a caldera. There is only evidence that this area is a rhyolite formation as much as fifty feet thick and was created by falling ash from a volcano. That was the last geologic event. Since then the rhyolite has been eroded by wind and rain and the entire area for over two hundred square miles is exactly the same desert sand and rhyolite outcroppings, except for the crash site, which differs only by the cristobalite material and the burned vegetation. Outside this line of demarcation there is only desert sand, rhyolite outcroppings, and the normal desert vegetation one would expect. . Cristobalite is scattered across an area at least three football fields in size. In some sections it's much thicker than others and on some rocks it's just a thin coating. It's on large rocks the size of a car and on small rocks the size of a loaf of bread and some the size of apples. It's more concentrated around the first impact site and the eventual crash (landing) site.