Help With ID of Meteorite

Perhaps there's something there I can't see in the photographs, but that doesn't look like any meteorite I've ever seen. Meteorites typically exhibit the burn/melted marks of their fiery trip through the Earth's atmosphere. Is this a piece broken off a larger piece of the meteorite? What's that stuff that appears to be growing on it?

Funny-looking meteorites are often the subject of some really scary sci-fi movies, and it never turns out well in the end for the person who found the meteorite.

Meteorology is not me strong suit.

OK. This rock came with the wife. She said it was a meteorite.

But upon further interrogation, she said she wasn't sure.

Maybe it is just a funny looking rock.

A former active member (Sue) is having it looked at by an expert.

We'll see what develops.

Interesting looking rock. The one on the right looks like accumulated layers of something. That would imply a sedimentary process but it could have come from a furnace of some kind. Either that, or there seem to be fossil inclusions which means life outside of earth if it were part of a meteorite

The blue color would be very vary rare for a meteorite. Entry into the atmosphere surely would have superheated some surfaces, but this could be a fragment from the inside of a larger rock. Still, I think you are pulling our collective leg(s).

That blue color is really strange. What is it really?

The picture is not all that clear but it looks like you might have a collection of chondrite fragments.

Is your dog as big as an elephant? This rock is 12" wide and weighs about 30 pounds.

So its fossilized Big Rabbit Pu. Now what? Still wonder what that has to do with the weather . . .

Only 80 pounds, but she has been known to produce accumulative "sculptures" in our yard.

12" wide and 30 lbs?

If I found that in the yard I'd definitely switch Fido's chow to something lower in fiber.

(Sorry for the bathroom humor, just got in, coffee hasn't kicked in yet.)

Good point, you got me on that! LOL

Ah. Kraptonite: that would explain why Lyn's only got about 31000 posts and 1200 good answers!

It looks like furnace slag, from an iron ore furnace....so that would be glass with iron for coloring....

http://www.fallingcreekironworks.org/Slagpage.html

No glassy shine at all. All dull. I'll take some more detailed pix tomorrow with more contrast.

No shine, that rules out my first thought, obsidian with some inclusions.

If it is hollow, you could X-ray it to find the I.D.

We already know the id is concealed in the rocks.

Or he finds E.T.!

Good morning!

The blue color reminds me of the blue water in the lavatory on jet airliners.

You don't think...?

Sue,

Thanks! I'll post some better photos this afternoon. It's still dark here right now.

What is the density (specific gravity) of the rock? How does it compare with, an equal sized piece of, say, granite or limestone, whatever the common rock is in your area.

Seems like PVC to me.

I think it is a chunk of this?

Okay, in what movie does a Mullet-wearing David Spade eat a Burger off of a giant Raisin (at least i hope it's a raisin) sitting in a Radio Flyer?

Now that Ive typed the question, I DON'T WANT to know the answer. It's probably going to be too weird for me.

Have you called the manufacturer?

Have you read the manual?

Easy there boy..He or she is way cooler these days. Or I might just not too often here for quite a while now.

Good one! LMFAO!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Any copper mines in your area? Looks like it might be a few chunks of copper ore.

It could be Serpentinite...the California state rock....yes there is one....OK it was removed a few years ago I think because it is known to contain the deadly mineral chyrsotile asbestos, a known carcinogen and it was deemed unsuitable for Californians to worship a poison rock....(sic)

Yes read the manual!

Copper ore: Malachite or Azurite possible.

Well anyway, you did not say it was a 'problem' having them in the backyard, otherwise I could have suggested moving them to the front yard.

This would be a good app for google images...to upload a photo like this and browse for similar images...

In this case, I think you would get images of landfill recycled from old corroded construction showing layers of corroded rebar or some other re-enforcing material to support concrete or some other building material.

But it could just be airplane extract...

So, a magnet is not attracted to it. It feels as heavy as a rock. I haven't weighed it or attempted to measure its density. I've heard enough comments to believe it probably isn't a meteorite. I may have a section cut off and polished if it doesn't cost too much.

Piece of a cast iron bathtub, maybe?

This guy knows, but he's not talkin'.....

Jabba the Hut ?

Is it hard enough to possibly be flint? The color seems correct.

Maybe. This is a close-up of one of the inclusions.The red color is on the surface only.This feature is just a little over 2" wide.

Looks like it flakes like flint, too.

Hmmm. Chert inclusions in a sedimentary rock?

Not very exotic.

Oh well, that may be the final analysis.

I tell ya if I lived in Arizona I would be doin some prospecting....You have some prime locations for all kinds of semiprecious stones...

Too old, other priorities.

In the late 70's when I was single, I explored much of the Arizona outback. Both by 4WD and dirt bike. Great memories.

Rocks never called my name.

Well you clearly have plenty of material there. You could learn the craft of knapping.

Maybe you could then collaborate with Del to make some modern, ancient weaponry.

Chert comes in many flavors....

....so does Chalcedony...

Just a wild guess. This is a piece of Pacific ocean crust that has been dragged down underneath the North American plate, subjected to extremely high pressure, and then vomited up along the continental margin, maybe in California.

The first pic you sent out with the OP, the rock appeared blue to me. I went with that, but now I clearly see this as dark gray, with brown inclusions. This is a mafic rock of fairly deep origin, possibly associated with volcanic activity. If your wife stills claims this as a meteorite, did it come from Meteor Crater, Arizona area? If so, then it might not be so much of a meteorite, but rather cast off implosion debris, torn out of the impact crater. Interesting? Conjecture? yes.

If the rock were considerably darker, I would say if was ultramafic (deep crust, or oceanic ridge origin), but no, I believe the surface crystalline material is a metamorphic oxidation of part of the iron minerals in the rock (just because non-magnetic, does not mean it contains no iron). The chemical composition of this stone is most likely a form of aluminosilicate with iron, manganese, or other transition metal inclusions. The apparent hardness of the mineral based on chonchoid appearing fracture lines, indicates a form of chert, a low-grade flint.

They don't have colleges or universities in your state where you could run it by and ask somebody who knows something about that thing ?

Anybody could take the easy way and do that.

I do have connections to a few local college administrators that I could use, now that you mention it.

They actually would do this for me.

I have connections to one of them on Linkedin. I'll milk this here for awhile first.

Hi Lyn,

Any chance of a photo with a rule beside it so that we can estimate its size please

what are the metals/minerals found in meteorites.

Google knows.

Typically iron and nickel but any and all other elements can be found.

Lyn, who owns stuff that comes from space ?

Is space stuff covered by that nutty moon ownership rule or is it just finders keepers.

I bet a piece of that rock tossed in a tumbler made into a necklace could be auctioned off for a valentines gift for the wives of more than half the members here.��

Meteorology? Yep, you are definitely not a weather man.

Your "meteor" is probably not a meteor. It might be a native american mineral (no, I do not mean "navaho stone". Have you checked it with a G-M tube or a silicon drift detector? It really does not look like pitchblende or monazite. It resembles some naturally occuring aluminosilicate minerals that may have a volcanic origin. The inclusion might even be a form of asbestos. The picture below is of a specimen of a aluminoborosilicate mineral known as:

Dumortierite is a borosilicate with the formula Al ₂₇ B ₄ Si ₁₂ O ₆₉ (OH) ₃ . It's typically blue or violet and found in fibrous masses in gneiss or schist. Best I could do, and it really is no match for what you have. There is something odd about the inclusion on your specimens that I cannot place at the moment. But there again, I wanted to be a lumberjack in West Texas.

Does not appear to be a meteorite, hard to say what it is from a photo. You need to look closely with a magnifying glass to determine if it is igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic. A scratch test for hardness, and a streak test to see what color streak it makes. With that information you can narrow it down quite a bit. If it was a meteorite it would be worth a lot of money, but my humble opinion is that it is not.

It looks like sedimentary, now that I have meteorite out of my brain.

I'm going to give it a good cleaning this weekend.

That dumb ol' rock, could it be older than dirt? Like us?

Lyn,

If I had to guess I would say it is Basalt rock. Very Curious to know what the answer to this one is.

Yes sir. I can tentatively agree with that, by appearance the rock is mafic, not ultramafic, due to the lighter color, but there is that pesky metamorphic appearance as if the rock was under water a long time after being formed.

Back to your mystery rock. To a geologist, an anonymous rock is like an anonymous poster on CR4. The first thing we need to know is where it came from. You said that it fell from the sky along with your wife. Where did she get the rock from? Did she take it from some alien planet like Mars or Venus or California? The geologic setting where the rock came from is an important clue to its identification. Even if they were found loose as boulders, rocks this size have not traveled very far from their point of origin unless they came from a region that had been glaciated like New England.

It's been with my wife for 40 years. She got it from her X-father in law who found it in the Arizona desert years ago. That's all we know about it.

I helped the local community college get a bronze statue for their rose garden a couple of years ago. I could ask one of the contacts I made there.

Just did a quick review of the geologic map of Arizona. What a mess! Everything from Precambrian metamorphics to recent volcanics and sediments, all jumbled up by the ongoing basin and range faulting.

One test you could make at home if you happen to have some Hydrochloric acid. Put a few drops on the rock. If it fizzes it is limestone. Possibly a cherty limestone (limestone with inclusions of chert , SiO2) from the Kaibab Formation(Permian) from the Grand Canyon area.

If we don't have it, you don't need it. Look at all the pretty colors.

Unfortunately, the rocks that you see in the field are not the same color shown on the map. This makes geologic field work a bit more challenging.

If you don't have any HCl, a few drops of battery acid would also work.

Might check with ASU. They used to verify and type-classify meteorites for the guys on Discovery Channel's "Meteorite Men" a few years ago.

Offhand I think it came from the south pole of Vulcan. I could be mistaken thought, like the time when I was about 12 and thought I was wrong, but was mistaken.

Damn you, Lyn! Now you have got me hooked on trying to identify your rock. I have a good mind to fly over to Arizona and see this rock first hand. Given that we have three feet of snow on the ground here, with another foot or more coming tomorrow, that might not be a bad idea.

Anyway, every rock has a story to tell. That is the reason I studied geology, to learn to read that story.

Every needs a calling in life.

You may have found yours.

I plan to give the rock a bath today, it's muddy from resting in the dirt in the back yard. (Its natural habitat)

On Monday, I'll call the college.

Whats the news?

A washed rock is a good rock.

Maybe you gave it the desired bath in HCl as well.

More input needed!

Did cleaning this rock reveal any new information?

Did anyone at the college see this rock and offer an opinion?

Cleaning it did not offer anything new.

I have not gotten the rock to the school, yet, but I will.

Lyn, I wish you good luck, the first day of school can be traumatic.

Have you checked for radioactivity? OHOH!

Add explanation here....

Lair of the legendary fiatarian, the Solar Eagle.

The car was there first!

Called the geology department at the local college and am waiting to hear from the dept. head.

Keep us posted!

Hi Lyn,

The suspense is terrible. Are we getting closer to an answer?

BAB

Not really. I've called the college and left messages, but no call backs.

I'll call again tomorrow.

Sorry for the lack of progress.

They do.

I'll take the entire rock to them, if needed.

"Collage campus overrun by aliens" "More at 10"......

Maybe you better go over there and check?

I believe they all have student visas.

Walked RIGHT into that one!......

I just talked to the head of the Geology Dept.

He said they'd look at it for me.

Cool.

On the edge of my seat waiting for their determination!

Whats the news?

Won't know until next week.

I've got too much to do this week.

More suspense.

Even worse, I am on the other side of the international date line so I have to wait an extra day. #@*%*#

BAB

That's entirely your problem dude!

I missed my chance on Wednesday.

So, next Monday I'll take the rock to the college.