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possible meteorite????

J

jamesinwesttexas

New member
Could someone tell me if this might be a meteorite? It must be at least 5 times as heavy as quartz, attracts a small magnet on a string, is silver shiny on the window I filed on the corner, streaks a real light grey. My MXT says nickle on one side and copper on the opposite side. Thanks.
James
 
I guess not a meteorite, but that flat, smooth surface on part of it I thought could be a fusion crust. And copper has been found in meteorites. Maybe I should just go dump it in the river? [joke!] Thanks for looking and any guesses to what it is are appreciated.
James
 
One suggestion is to see if a magnet sticks to it, if it does then that is a good start.

Then take a look at this web site http://www.aerolite.org/found-a-meteorite.htm it will give you more insight into this type of find.

G8r4evr
 
Take it to oyur local museum and or college and have it checked out by a professional.
If it aint one it sure is a cool meteorwrong :thumbup:
 
Where did you find it? Is it near any dumps or old smelter site?

Sure it's not smelter slag?

Mst meteorites are pitted all around and have concave pites in the metals.
 
Thanks all for looking and giving me your ideas. I sent the pictures to the above link yesterday and still waiting for a response. I sent the pics to another meteorite website also and they said it does not look like one to them but didn't say why. I tried to post the pics on a nugget forum that also deals with meteorites but can't for some reason and emailed the administrator and no response yet. Yes my first thought was some sort of mining slag, but I've read that it would be somewhat porous and give a different streak. It does attract a magnet, but my magnet is some old piece of one and not strong. What really got me going on it is the obvious crust layer. When meteorites enter the atmosphere, the leading edge melts and forms a fusion crust. I'll keep yall posted. Thanks again.
James
 
Good advice, Kelley, I may take it to a man who runs a rock shop and also knows a lot about meteorites. Catching him there can be a problem. Guess I should call him. The most definitive thing to do would probably be a test for nickle [anything more than 3 to 5 percent nickle would be fairly conclusive, I've read]. Also, the widmanstatten pattern would prove it. I have a friend who's a rock collector [he's convinced it's a meteorite] and he just acquired a good saw, so maybe we'll saw it and etch it and look for that pattern. Thanks for any advice.
James
 
Yeah, I don't like the idea of damaging something that might be rare, so I hope I could ID it without too much damage. Interesting, though how all these famous meteorites get cut up and sold in pieces. Kind of like taking a rare book apart and selling the pages.

Something I ran across in my meteorite research was the green fireballs that fell in New Mexico and other places in the late 40's. I don't know if they ever found any of them. You might want to google the wickipedia article about those. Really interesting.
James
 
Seems to sit on a flat side. Got a picture of that side? Also a closeup on a pitted area?

Green fireballs mean copper burning... You might have a spacerock there.... Now you never answered whether near a smelter.... I worke with titanium and we produced some wierd slag....
 
Here's a couple more pics [low resolution but I could email a higher res one to you]. Maybe you can zoom on the area above the filed window. The metal itself seems to have no pores. It was found in area where there could have been a smelter. Thanks!
James
 
My thoughts

The flat seems to indicate it was poured onto the ground. That kinda inclines me to beleive it is slag from a smelter. But you should still take it to an expert. The other thing would be to see if you find more. That would kinda seal the deal on it being slag...

Intriguing non the less..
 
Yeah, that was my first impression, slag. I've had this for years. But I got to reading about fusion crusts and this one seemed to have one. So I've decided to make sure. I think I'm going to go ahead and have it cut, since it probably is slag, as that seems like the best way to prove it one way or the other. When we get around to doing that, I'll post some more pictures here. This has been an education [short course] in meteorites for me. Thanks!
James
 
Interesting that you would mention a crystal because my rockhound friend thinks he sees a crystal pattern [maybe hexagon] in the perimeter of the flat bottom. Don't know when we'll cut it now, my friend now says his saw can't handle it. I'm sort of stymied at this point, but hope to get it ID'd soon. I'm at the library right now with a pile of books on meteorites.
James
 
Forgot to mention that I sent the first two photos to Mr. Meteorite [Ruben Garcia] and he says it looks a little like a meteorite and a lot like slag, but he couldn't be sure unless he held it.
James
 
I'm fairly sure now that this is a meteorite. I cut a portion off [see the 2 new pics] with a carbide blade hacksaw, smoothed it on a diamond board, sanded it to 800 fine, and tried to etch it first with vinegar and then with muriatic acid. I read later I should have mixed hydrogen peroxide with the acid, or used nitric acid. But I think the light etching has brought out, not a classic widmanstatten pattern, but some kamacite bands and in the middle, if you zoom, you can make out 2 parallel lines which I think are so called newman lines. These are all indications of an iron meteorite. Not all iron meteorites exhibit the classic pattern, depending on the nickle content. Other indications are the graphite inclusions [my hands got all black sawing], the numerous stress fractures, the fact that it is very hard [they have micro diamonds and it took me over three hours of constant sawing to cut it]. Just to be sure, I've ordered a lab test. Tell me what you think.
James
 
Wow pretty cool!! Don't know if I would make anymore cuts. Hope it turns out to be valuable, could fetch a nice price to the right buyer. That is if you were going to sell it. I would love to find some of those. Goodluck in all you do with it.
 
Thanks so much for the encouragement. It would be so easy sometimes to give up searching for the answer to what this is. I'm hoping the lab test will finally answer the question [something I should have done right off the bat] and I should know in about a week. I know it's difficult to tell much by pictures and descriptions, meteorites are very rare to find, but I would have thought that some of the knowledgeable people who have looked at this would have shown a little more interest [not referring to members of this forum necessarily] because it just doesn't seem to fit the indications for slag. Not sure what to do with it if it is a meteorite. That could be more difficult than trying to ID it. I would hope it would wind up displayed somewhere close to where it fell. And no, I won't be cutting it again. Meteorites are actually very fragile and they've been through a lot and they can tell us a lot. Thanks for looking and commenting.
James
 
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