Distal tektites typically suffered minimal plastic deformation during the ejection stage, but evidently sufficient deformation to give an orientation. They re-entered the atmosphere as solid and brittle bodies. They suffered an ablation stage and then a spallation stage. The degree of ablation and degree of spallation determines the final morphology. For a given distance from the impact, small size variations effectively determine the morphology. For a given sized body, ablation effects increase with distance, i.e. theoretically the size of a body that can produce a fully flanged button increases with distance.
Most important classification points:
1) Primary morphology.
2) Ablation history.
3) Spallation History.
4) Size of the body. This goes hand-in-hand with degree of ablation and spallation history. Not so important as most distal tektites are small, but you will note that certain morphologies are characteristic of certain primary morphology sizes at a set distance from the source crater. By including size in the classification we better understand the morphologies and how they relate to one another.
Less important classification points:
5) Plastic deformation is likely subtle, absent according to most researchers, and for smaller bodies can effectively be ignored in the classification scheme. In larger bodies it is often more important as ablation and spallation alone clearly cannot account for the all the material ‘lost’ in the final morphology.
6) Almost all distal tektites are oriented, so orientation is not of great importance in classification of distal forms.