I need documentation and research on how hyalite is formed in outwash glacial deoposits on granitic/andesitic cobbles and river beds. I am finding this material on outwash sands and gravels at approximately 30-36 inches below soil level throughout the Puget Sound (Salish Sea) basin. I have also found it from Spokane, WA to the Pacific coast, from Canada to Eugene, Oregon.

This deposit is above glacial till levels, and primarily outwash deposits and river beds. Most documentation I find talks about hyalite occurring in volcanic regions deep within the rocks in cracks and cavities. This material I speak of is ubiquitous across Washington and parts of Oregon. Landscape cobbles from Montana show the same material.

Calcite (calcium carbonate) deposits from river bed rocks in New Jersey for example look completely different, showing mineral versus glass-like composition, nor do the "joins" between two rocks look the same.

Originally by the looks of it, occurring on one side of the rocks only and showing signs of high viscosity I and my research associates thought it was impact meltglass, until we learned it was analyzed at the University of Washington under SEM analysis as Hyalite, hydrated silicon dioxide (SiO₂·nH₂O). Not only can we not call it impact melt glass because of the chemical composition, but also because SEM and magnetic analyses of spherules and pieces of "meltglass" show that the impact proxies were made in a highly charged magnetic field, indicating lightning may have created the "meltglaze" we call the hyalite on the rocks.

It is known that lightning can beat up rocks and create the same proxies for impacts as comet or asteroid explosions can. So either:

a) Am I getting lucky gathering rock and soil samples at lightning strike locations everyhwhere all the time, or

b) If the magnetic charge is ubiquitous regionally, do we need to include lightning as a byproduct of impact that results from regional spontaneous combustion/vaporization of forests? Wildfires in Australia in the last decade have generated their own weather and lightning from the ferocity of the blazes.

In each site I look at there is ample evidence of widepread wildfires, with a burn layer right on glacial till, or within 24 inches (60 cm) below soil level. Therefore the hyalite layer occurs below that from 30 to 39 inches bsl.

I would appreciate whatever people can find, thank you.