That’s a lot of weight for a pane of glass. Additionally, if it’s tempered (which I suspect it must be), then when it fails, it’ll fail catastrophically. It’ll literally explode, sending glass bits everywhere. Now, it’s actually not as dangerous as it sounds, the pieces of glass will be “dull” and won’t cut to the bone, but can still cause nicks and scratches. You also risk breathing in glass dust. The reason why tempered glass can explode is because it’s been cooled in such a way so that the exterior is putting the interior under pressure, and the interior is pushing out and giving the exterior strength. However, microfractures can form over time, especially when the glass flexes (like heavy weight being unsupported by a non-glass structure). As these microfractures occur, the pane gets weaker and weaker until the exterior can no longer keep the interior under pressure, at which point the entire thing explodes.
Tempered glass desks are pretty safe so long as you aren’t putting too much weight on them, but a monitor mount, especially one that tall, is going to exert a ton of torque on the glass.
Thank you for the complete explanation, the desk itself is quite thick and Ive had it for 3 years so I wasnt too concerned. Are those microfractures usually visible?
Not usually. I don’t know if you have any instructions still laying around, or if you know who the desk was made by, but you might wanna double check if it’s tempered glass or not. If it’s tempered glass then you might wanna consider moving the mount off the glass if possible. If it’s not tempered glass then it might actually be fine despite technically being weaker, however I can’t tell how thick the glass is (you could also consider taking measurements and seeing approximately how much weight it can withstand using a calculator like this; the glass may be thick enough either way).
