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 Replies: 12 / Views: 1,823 |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
Found this the other day about 4"'s down in a small playground in my town. Very strong signal/high tone. Similar to most clad/copper/silver etc. as well as lead. Thought it was a chunk of metal of sorts at first but then the weight of it did not make sense after I cleaned it up a bit and noticed it was a stone/rock or mineral of some kind. It weighs 25.5 grams. Pretty heavy for it's size. I put it in a bench vise (don't laugh:) and gave it one heck of a whack with a 5 lb. hand sledge hammer. All I could muster was a slight chip off of it as seen in the last 2 pics. Pretty rugged/hard chunk of rock. Thought lead of some sort, galena,cerussite,anglesite maybe. I did some checking and found out that "Metallic Lead" is pretty rare. Just a possibility of course here. Found it odd though because of where I live. In northern Massachusetts. However, the city that I live in is noted as being the second hilliest in the U.S. and is surrounded by hills of misc. rocks and granite. The playground was located in a hillier section of town kind of in the boonies. This small rock does have some form of metal in it though. Any help would be appreciated. Pic.'s are not great but ? Happy to answer any questions also about it. Thank's. http://i1020.photobucket.com/albums...mis1/MD1.jpghttp://i1020.photobucket.com/albums...mis1/MD2.jpghttp://i1020.photobucket.com/albums...mis1/MD3.jpghttp://i1020.photobucket.com/albums...mis1/MD4.jpg |
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Looks like haematite (Fe2O3) to me. Should have a specific gravity of about 5.
Haematite occurs almost as a pure mineral in Western Australia, and has made Australia a leading exporter of the mineral, mainly to China, in the millions of tons. The mineral has underpinned the envious state of what would otherwise be lackluster Australian economy.
Edited by sel_69l
06/08/2012 02:01 am
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
I spent 6 years in the Pilbara and go there often now on shutdowns and this to me does not look like iron ore to me. I could be nickle or some other metallic mineral. I know that galena is pretty soft and you would have crushed it with a 5lb baby sledgie. I really have no definite idea of what it is but there are 1.042 x 10^3 Engineers on this site https://goccf.com/t/93894one of them should be able to shed some light on this for you  |
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
2830 Posts |
does it react to a magnet ?
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Pillar of the Community
 United States
3640 Posts |
Thanks all. No reaction magnetically.
Might try a homemade spec. grav. test with the thread and water etc.
to see if it's a match. Will also re check with my detector at different
settings to try and eliminate others.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
Also, in hand the area that I did chip away is light to darker
gray in color. And where it was clamped in the vise the surface now appears shiny. Do not see any reddish color at all
on it.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Is there any evidence of rectangular crystal structure to it?
If there is a crystal structure to it and it survived a hammer blow, it could indicate that those crystals where at the point of contact could be interpenetrant, i.e. they have grown into each other.
Edited by sel_69l
06/08/2012 12:17 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Canada
1411 Posts |
Is there any volcanic activity in the region currently or in the past? As it does look like multiple volcanic rocks.
If there isn't it kinda looks like a meteorite...
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
1015 Posts |
Dome on one side and concave on the other with a melted rim could be a meteorite
Edited by nuggethill
06/08/2012 6:35 pm
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Pillar of the Community
Australia
7096 Posts |
If the sg comes out at about 7.3 it could be native tin
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
I ran into an acquaintance of mine last night and showed
it to him. He was 99% sure it is a meteorite. He hunts them out west
every year. I guess certain types/sizes etc. have a premium to them.
As well as some people just like to collect them. Even though this one
is relatively small I still would not have liked to been hit on the head with it falling from the sky. :)
I still want to do a Spec. gravity test on it though. Just curious.
Thank's all for your input.
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Bedrock of the Community
Australia
21788 Posts |
Meterorites are mostly iron with some nickel, making a natural alloy. They often exhibit rusting, being exposed the Earth's environment. That rusting is greatly inhibited by the admixture of nickel in the alloy. Most of the iron meterorites are halfway to being a sort of natural stainless steel.
The best place to buy one is at a gem & mineral show. If you wish to go down that track, get onto some of the gem & mineral websites and find a show calendar much like for a coin show. I attend a major gem & mineral show at least once a year.
A meterorite makes an ideal talking point on a mantlepiece. MUCH older than coins, billions of years old, not decades.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3640 Posts |
Thank's Sel, good idea. I checked the spec. gravity on it. (U'mmm) I do not think that this came down from the heavens above. More likely it came from below and up. Way Up... From Way down under  6.66 Kind of Eerie huh. |
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Replies: 12 / Views: 1,823 |
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Posted 06/08/2012 03:54 am
