Meteorite or Meteorwrong Options

[Woody]

Some odd finds,

A buddy asked me to help him identify some hefty rock samples he was finding. He said they were full of metal and kind of resembled what one might think of as being a meteorite. This intrigued me and I headed over to check out his finds. Upon viewing them I was 95% certain they were not meteorites and was about 75% certain they were slag of some sorts. However I could not give a definitive answer one way or the other and I could not rule out with 100% certainty they were not a naturally occurring rock. We went to the local creek where quickly we found several other specimens, again a suggestive indicator they were slag.
Often the easiest way to determine what an item is, is by proving what it is not. So I tried the Meteorite or Meteorwrong test. “Credit Utah’s Department of Natural Resources Geological Survey and other on-line resources”.
“Many different types of meteorites, this material would best fit the Stony-Iron type.”
1. Does the rock have a fusion crust? “Fusion Crust can be dark brown to fresh black, and glassy”. Answer- Yes, there are several areas that could be called fusion crust.
2. Is the rock magnetic? Iron meteorites strongly attract a magnet, stony meteorites have a slight attraction. Answer- Yes magnetic.
3. Does the rock have native iron? Native iron is shiny metal bright and looks like untarnished silver when it is exposed. Native iron is extremely rare in natural earth rocks. Answer- Yes there is metal showing and if I had to describe it I would use the words, “looks like Silver”.
4. Does the rock feel heavy compared to other rocks about the same size? Stony meteorites usually have a density from 3 to 4 times the density of fresh water. Answer- Yes it is much heavier than water.
5. Does the rock pass the window test. Cut a small window to see inside. Meteorites are tough, so you may need some elbow grease and lots of patience here! Wipe off the dust from the ground-off area and look inside the rock. A plain and featureless texture suggests that it's just another Earthly meteor-wrong, but if you can see small, bright flakes of shiny metal mixed within the stone, it probably is a meteorite. Answer- yes I see three metallic flakes in the small window I made.
6. Does your rock have bubble holes (vesicles)? Most meteorites don't have vesicles. Answer- Yes there is some holes in the material.
7. Does the rock have a streak? Test for streak by rubbing the rock on unglazed porcelain such as the back of a tile. If it leaves a streak, it probably isn't a meteorite. Answer- Well kind of, some of it will and some of it will not.
So two of the seven tests fail, there is bubbles and it will leave a streak, again probably not extra-terrestrial. Had me worried there for a couple of minutes. They are probably some sort of high grade slag. A by-product of the early mining days here in Colorado Springs. I can’t say why they have iron and metal showing but maybe the process used in those days were not as efficient as one might think. So sorry Chris B, I don’t believe they are meteorites but it is possible they could contain high grade ore of some sort.

All in all we found around 10 items. Some were about the size of a small microwave and too heavy to carry. As I cut into the material I was surprised to see the characteristics. There was little to no granular structure and it could be describes as being kind of resinous. It would not cut easy with a dermal cutting wheel. It kind of “chunked” off like it was brittle but it was not. Not what a person would think of as being slag.

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[Snowball Solar S...]

[quote name='Woody' date='Aug 2 2013, 10:21 PM' post='29013']
Some odd finds,

I think the scientific community is overly cautious and unimaginative in assuming all slag is man made. I've analyzed iron furnace slag from several sources here in Southeast Pennsylvania, and all require magnification to see micron-sized metallic-iron spherules in thin glassy chip sections with strong back lighting, whereas these metallic-iron blebs appear to be centimeter sized. Only a catastrophic event could trap metallic-iron droplets of this size against an almost 3:1 density differential.

Here in SE PA, I think I can trace this similar meteorwrong material to two round impact quarries, one next to Harrisburg, PA in Swatara Township and one in Conshohocken, PA, which were likely excavated for their iron-ore content. Both quarry impact craters are in limestone terrain may be necessary to 'flux' metallic iron into macroscopic-sized droplets.

My understanding is that the End Pleistocene extinction event, circa 13,100 years ago, that may have formed the 450 km Dia Nastapoka arc in southern Hudson Bay, and fragments from this comet may be responsible for silicides- and metallic-iron-type meteorwrongs. Carbon monoxide in comet ice may chemically reduce iron oxide in comet dust into metallic iron in the presence of limestone target rock, replicating the conditions found in pig-iron blast furnace, but at much higher pressure. Then the almost as sudden pressure collapse following the impact shock wave expands the basaltic melt, catastrophically freezing the metallic-iron droplets in place.

The material has no value due to the likely millions/billions of tons of the stuff lying around, so I hope you'll be good enough to reveal the location of the find to advance the science and possibly even locate the impact-crater/quarry on Google Terrain.

https://plus.google.com/photos/106045608115...0705?banner=pwa

https://plus.google.com/photos/106045608115...0737?banner=pwa

https://plus.google.com/photos/106045608115...3377?banner=pwa

https://plus.google.com/photos/106045608115...2865?banner=pwa

My Google+ Account:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/106045608115852817529/posts

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[ASTROBLEME]

Snowball,

I agree that many academics are locked into assumptions that yield incorrect results when making determinations on unusual samples. It is always best to follow through with high precision iron isotope analysis. Do you have any isotope data on the iron furnace slags you've examined that you'd be willing to share? I have ICPMS isotopes for a 270 gram "suspected meteorite" shown in the photos below that I would be willing to provide. The lower photo shows the cut surface of the "suspected meteorite" against the likely slag sample I cut from Woody. I did not run the likely slag specimen due to the large vesicles and location of the find being close to a smelter operation. The suspected meteorite was collected by a ranch owner from his well traveled dirt driveway...soon after a large fireball passed right over that area. The fireball report is well documented and can be viewed here...

Cloudbait Fireball

By the way, I was told that the "suspected meteorite" was only slag by a well known meteorite scientist that looked at the pics and the ICPMS reports, so it would be interesting to compare this to data from Pennsylvania.

ASTROBLEME