Did we find a real piece of Kryptonite from an alien world out walking our dog???

Originally posted by the.lights
reply to post by davespanners

 

I just tried it. Malt vinegar. There was no bubbling.

Then it's not salt either.... salt and vinegar react to form sodium acetate and hydrochloric acid.

NaCl + CH3COOH --> NaCH3COO + HCl

I'm still betting it's an agate...

Can I just say that the edges look very...purposely shaped? As if they were flinted off to make the edges sharper? Exactly how thin is the thinnest side?

Making flint tools

Originally posted by XHellcatX
Can I just say that the edges look very...purposely shaped? As if they were flinted off to make the edges sharper? Exactly how thin is the thinnest side?

Making flint tools

That was my thought too... it looks like it might be a scraper. It's common to find stone tools made from agate if there is no suitable flint or obsidian to be found in the area.

kinda looks like a close up of my grans false teeth!
Seriously though i havent got a clue but nice find

Originally posted by XHellcatX
Can I just say that the edges look very...purposely shaped? As if they were flinted off to make the edges sharper? Exactly how thin is the thinnest side?

Making flint tools

I think it looks like that because its a salt lick that has been lying on the ground with the rain making it smooth and flat where its dissolved.

Yep.
Definitely Kryptonite.
Does a Mr Luther live near you?

Looks like a big, ol' chunk of rose quartz to me.

Is there a lot of granite in the region you are from (what region, btw?). Granite and quartz are often found in close proximity. I went to summer camp in the mountains of Western Maryland as a child and those mountains were pretty much made of granite and quartz. Occasionally you'd find some quite large formations of the quartz - milky, rose, etc., but usually it was just small pieces of the stuff. They could be quite beautiful and interesting, but very, very common.

A specimen like that could well be worth something, just cause it looks so pure and interesting.

Originally posted by Blarneystoner

Originally posted by the.lights
reply to post by davespanners

 

I just tried it. Malt vinegar. There was no bubbling.

Then it's not salt either.... salt and vinegar react to form sodium acetate and hydrochloric acid.

NaCl + CH3COOH --> NaCH3COO + HCl

I'm still betting it's an agate...

Interesting... But would vinegar also dissolve it if it was Himalayan salt lick?

Originally posted by XHellcatX
Can I just say that the edges look very...purposely shaped? As if they were flinted off to make the edges sharper? Exactly how thin is the thinnest side?

Making flint tools

I'm sort of with you on that. Actually the thin top edge of the stone looks very much like that albeit weathered by time. Although I'm still not sure.

Originally posted by 21st century man
Yep.
Definitely Kryptonite.
Does a Mr Luther live near you?

Haha! He's one of my neighbours!

Originally posted by LifeInDeath
Looks like a big, ol' chunk of rose quartz to me.

Is there a lot of granite in the region you are from (what region, btw?). Granite and quartz are often found in close proximity. I went to summer camp in the mountains of Western Maryland as a child and those mountains were pretty much made of granite and quartz. Occasionally you'd find some quite large formations of the quartz - milky, rose, etc., but usually it was just small pieces of the stuff. They could be quite beautiful and interesting, but very, very common.

A specimen like that could well be worth something, just cause it looks so pure and interesting.

edit on 11/12/2010 by LifeInDeath because: (no reason given)

Thanks! Several other people have said quartz.

I don't know much about the geology of the region. It's the Vale of Glamorgan in South Wales.

I hope it's worth something. But as also described it could be a Himalayan salt lick as the field in which it was found regulalry has sheep.

The thing that has us baffled is that of the three people who have viewed the rock so far have all said the same thing - if you look at the macro (close up) pictures I took on page 4 of the thread, it really does look as though something biological is trapped inside the rock and got there whilst the rock was formed.

reply to post by the.lights


Rose quartz is Macrocrystaline and doesn't "weather out" like the stone you found. Agate is Microcrystaline, meaning that the individual crystals can only be seen under a microscope. Typically, in microcrystaline quartz, the crystal structure is either long fibrous crystals that line up or they are spherical and pack together like BBs. Opal, jasper, flint, and chert are examples of microcrystaline quartz w/a spherical structure. Agate is a type of microcrystaline quartz where the crystals are long and fibrous which makes it translucent. When agate forms, generally in pockets of solidified lava, it can contain iron oxide molecules which seek each other out while the silica solution is still in it's aqueaous state, those oxide molecules link up to form the blobs and filaments you're seeing inside.

I've never heard of any association of agate w/granite. For the most part agates are generally found in or near solidified lava flows with the exception of Opal. After lava cools and solidifies, pockets or voids are left behind from gases that percolate to the surface. The voids then fill up with silica saturated water that seeps down through cracks and fissures in the lava. Once the voids are filled and the water reaches it's saturation point, the silica molecules link up and begin to solidify. That's basically how agate forms.

If you would do a scratch test, we can ID the type of mineral. If it's found to be Quartz, a fracture test would tell you if it's micro or macro crystaline, then you'll know for certain.

Originally posted by the.lights

Originally posted by Blarneystoner

Originally posted by the.lights
reply to post by davespanners

 

I just tried it. Malt vinegar. There was no bubbling.

Then it's not salt either.... salt and vinegar react to form sodium acetate and hydrochloric acid.

NaCl + CH3COOH --> NaCH3COO + HCl

I'm still betting it's an agate...

Interesting... But would vinegar also dissolve it if it was Himalayan salt lick?

Yes... it's still just salt. I'm pretty sure you can rule out Himalayan salt as the ID.

Himalayan salt is a marketing term for Halite (commonly known as rock salt) from Pakistan, which began being sold by various companies in Europe, North America, and Australia in the early 21st century. It is mined in the Khewra Salt Mines, the second largest salt mine in the world, located in Khewra, Jhelum District, Punjab, Pakistan, about 300 km from the Himalayas, about 160 kilometres from Islamabad, and 260 kilometres from Lahore, and in the foothills of the Salt Range

Source:
Wikipedia

Unless you live in Pakistan....