Is this a possible meteorite?

I'll defer to the more 'geo' oriented people out there, but my first thought was dripping water erosion all over it, and then perhaps the indentations were formed by inclusions, possibly soft fossils, that have since weathered off.

It seems weird that if you were hitting nails, you'd use the whole thing like that rather than the same few spots on the opposite side of a hand-hold. And if you've got nails, you would probably have a hammer made up too.

j.r.c.b.

AnonymousCitizen

rickymouse
Could also have been a stone that was used for setting iron stakes or even hammering old nails hundreds of years ago.

This sounds very possible. It was found near the ruins of an early 1800's settlement in Colorado. Hammering of nails makes some sense.

Interesting.....I love finds like that. Every time we get a good downpour, we run out to the wooded hill behind our house, because all the old bottles, and an Indian head or some such thing will wash up. S&F 👍

Indian HEADS? Or you mean arrowheads?

eriktheawful
Meteorites are not granite.

Ah, but what if the meteorite comes from Mars?

I just saw this news: www.sciencedaily.com...

Evidence Found for Granite On Mars: Red Planet More More Geologically Complex Than Thought.

Large amounts of a mineral found in granite, known as feldspar, were found in an ancient Martian volcano. Further, minerals that are common in basalts that are rich in iron and magnesium, ubiquitous on Mars, are nearly completely absent at this location. The location of the feldspar also provides an explanation for how granite could have formed on Mars. Granite, or its eruptive equivalent, rhyolite, is often found on Earth in tectonically active regions such as subduction zones. This is unlikely on Mars, but the research team concluded that prolonged magmatic activity on Mars can also produce these compositions on large scales.

reply to post by wildespace


Then he's found the first piece of granite from Mars. Would be priceless.

A priceless object that's been used as a hammer a long time ago.

modern Raptors eat stones to aid in digestion....

so did prehistoric Dinosaurs... the stones in their gullet were most likely the 7 1/2" size of the OP stone...

i suggest that the pock marks are from the cantaloupe sized stone clacking into other stones in a Dinosaurs belly and the digestive juices eroding the dents into the shallow pockmarks which are over the entire surface



~or something to that effect ~


see:

Brachiosaurus - Jurassic Park Wiki - Wikia
jurassicpark.wikia.com/wiki/Brachiosaurus

It is now known that sauropods like Brachiosaurus swallowed gastroliths, also
called gizzard, or stomach stones. The stones served as a major part ...

It's a Gastrolith & not just a rock

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


Okay, then, well...


FOR SALE:

(1) 8 pound Martian granite meteorite. Some normal wear and tear from being held in the gizzard of a dinosaur. Additional wear from being used as a hammer in the early 1800s.

Opening suggested bid: $50.00 (plus shipping)

reply to post by signalfire


I have at minimum twenty hammers, axes, sledges of various sizes and shapes. I have about ten nailguns of various kinds. If I am pounding in a stake and I don't have a hammer with me I grab a rock that is around. I have done that many times throughout the years. I used a rock to renail one of those magnetic door screens back on to my daughters front door a couple of weeks ago when I was on the front porch having a butt. I have worked with hammers most of my working life, having one hanging on my side most of the workday and I still use rocks

RocksFromSpace
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

I'm a Meteorite Dealer and I can say 100% it is NOT a Meteorite.

Youll like this one.

I bid on a box of memorabilia at a live auction and won it. I got badges, pins, all sorts of NASA stuff... even the negative plus pic from the negative of a picture taken of earth from one of the Apollos. Lotsa cool junk. The husband likes NASA stuff... so I wanted the real deal to make his home office cool. Anyway, its a BIG box.. toward the bottom my eye spied this rock. The ONLY thing I know about meteors is that the majority are magnetic. Then as I went through the bits and pieces at the bottom it was marked "Meteorite, 1996, Pleasant Ridge, FVH, Il.". I grabbed an old speaker, ripped the magnet out of it and voila.. magnet stuck. Cool thing Id say!! Gotta love those estate auctions...

AnonymousCitizen
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

Okay, then, well...


FOR SALE:

(1) 8 pound Martian granite meteorite. Some normal wear and tear from being held in the gizzard of a dinosaur. Additional wear from being used as a hammer in the early 1800s.

Opening suggested bid: $50.00 (plus shipping)

Hey anon...
I was watching a show where you bring in your "junque" and they tell you what it is, what its worth.. etc. This guy was super excited that he had a meteorite and wanted to know just how much it was worth. Sadly it was coprolite.. fossilized poop. At least ya ain't that guy.

.... then again.. I wonder how much fossilized poo goes for? Especially if it had something gnarly in it like tapeworm eggs or something awful.

reply to post by Advantage



looks legitimate to me though it is hard to tell they mostly are just a chunk of iron
looks like its from fairview heights illinois couldnt find anything about a 1996 meteorite but i only looked briefly so you may have more luck

I recently posted a photo of a different rock this looks suspiciously like a meteorite. My kids found another piece in the same general area that looks similar, also with indentations as if from impacts.

1. A magnet sticks to it.
2. Looks very much like an "old stone meteorite" depicted here.
3. This small piece weighs 2.26 pounds.

I went back and check the original piece and it too sticks to a magnet. (The first magnet I tried was poor quality.)

It seems like the next test would be to check for the presence of nickel. Does anyone have a source for Dimethylglyoxime? Is the an easier way to check for nickel? Or maybe a better nest step?

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

Sorry, no granite from space. The dimples are odd and may catch the eye. To me they look like the kind of divots produced by sea creatures like barnacles and stuff that erode the rock where they attach to it. They use the material to make their shells. The rock may have been in a tidal zone, it looks like its "rounded" to some degree.

RocksFromSpace
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

I'm a Meteorite Dealer and I can say 100% it is NOT a Meteorite.

Your gonna be one busy person in the next couple months lol... wishing I was you, lol...

Yea, what part of country is your ranch in..... looks like fire starting stone.....

the bot

reply to post by intrptr


Does granite typically have that much iron in it? That's the part that has me revisiting this.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


No, it doesn't, typically.

What you should register in your magnet test is whether the magnet sticks to it as strongly as it does to an axe blade or hammerhead. You aren't using a very strong magnet for one, but should be able to tell the difference. You can hang the magnet from a string and move it close to the sample and compare that to a hammer and see the difference.

99% of meteorites are dense iron and nickel. So if it is only "sorta" attracted to your sample thats one indicator its not a meteorite.

The very, very few stony variety that are not attracted to magnets at all are called chondrites which are made up of "chondrules" which are little round "inclusions" (like different sized spheres) all stuck together.

These chondrules in chondrites cannot form on earth. If the fine grain texture of your rock has crystals that are square and sharp edged, that is a good indicator that it is not a meteorite.

Someone brought you this link to read on Page 1. Take a more thorough look.

Meteorite ID

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


Meteorite test kits.. www.meteoritesplus.com...

first a corner need sliced off and polished on any meteorite.

Iron ones are then acid treated to bring out the Widmanstätten pattern,
Do not clean off the rust on the outside of irons many collectors want "as found" with only the identification slice removed.

Stony meteorites will not have sharp grains but mostly round spherical grains execpt for the iron grains mayhave sharp point.

RocksFromSpace
reply to post by AnonymousCitizen

 

Meteorite test kits.. www.meteoritesplus.com...

Just ordered the kit. I'll report back once I find out if there is nickel along with the iron. Thanks for the link.

Hey, found this thread and wanted to add my find to it and possibly get some feedback as to what it is. I was hiking with my girlfriend in a canyon of northern New Mexico and she picked this up, first thing we noticed is that there was no other rock around it that had the slightest resemblance to it. Shiny, extremely heavy and smooth, it also shows signs of some kind of reddish/orange rust. A magnet sticks to it. Anyway, here are the pics. let me know what you think, would be pretty dope if it was a meteorite!