Naked Science Forum
Non Life Sciences => Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology => Topic started by: hoodbran on 16/06/2013 12:38:04
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Hi All, I found this in NE England not far from the coast - but maybe 1/2 mile inland.. I was walking until I kicked it and it was heavy. It weighs 283g is about 3"x1.5"x1.5" has lots of speckles and when I cut into it with a regular hacksaw there be silver metal inside!
It could just be a lump of iron but I have not seen iron rust like this and has more of a rocky constituency. (sorry for the bad quality pictures - taken from a phone).
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Looks like rusty industrial slag, e.g. ...
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/meteorwrongs/m247.htm
http://meteorites.wustl.edu/id/rlk_2711_slag.jpg
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Metal mixed with stone is a good sign but as RD mentions slag is a very real possibility-we see quite a bit of that at our museum. Anyhoo, check the specimen with a strong magnet, rare earth type, if the metal is the usual iron-nickel found in a meteorite the magnet will stick to the surface. If free metal is present and a magnet sticks we usually do a test for nickel, rare in earth rocks, common in meteorites. If it passes the nickel test we send it out for microprobe analysis and for a new meteorite find we encourage submission to the Meteoritical Bulletin.
I just uploaded a photolog of Brenham meteorites we have been digging in Kansas over the last 20 years, may be of interest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7wQsT_u6U (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7wQsT_u6U)
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On closer inspection there are parallel linear features, and possibly cubes (if not jpeg artefacts) …
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The parallel linear features on something which is coated in rust rules out meteorite.
If there are cubes maybe pyrite …
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http://meteorites.wustl.edu/meteorwrongs/m078.htm