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Could this be a meteorite ?

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  • Could this be a meteorite ?

    I found this in the woods , behind a school in Nobleboro , Maine , back in the 80's with a $49.00 Radio Shack metal detector . It is very heavy & dense . A magnet sticks to it . It all ready Had a '' Window '' cut on one side - so I think a kid may have lost it .
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  • #2
    That actually resembles a sample of a meteorite that fell at Nobleboro in 1823. It was classed as an eucrite meteorite, or stony, composed of basalt and other minerals. I'd have to research that. But I'm not sure if it was magnetic. I don't think it was, being a stony meteorite. We have a meteorite collector on the forum who will no doubt chime in here and give you a better description. Search the internet for , The Nobleborough, Maine meteorite, 1823. They do look very similar to this one you have!
    http://www.ravensrelics.com/

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    • #3
      Take the back off your toilet and try and write with it on the bottom of the tank lid. I think if it marks clearly it is Meteorite.
      Central TX

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      • #4
        Hey Mojjax, let me start of by saying I'm no expert at meteorites or metallic oars...but I did some research on the subject a few years ago when I though I had found a meteorite (my find turned out to be industrial slag) so I do feel I can at least give my opinion on your find. It does seem to pass a few tests. One would expect to see a little more melting of the surface metal with some "thumb prints" but there are examples of a more burnt crust that resembles your find. Also that smooth "window" cut from one side. It does appear someone else had the same hunch and was testing to see what it was made of. Meteorites are harder to find than gold nuggets so the odds are very slim...but I do think you might have a chance of being correct with this one. One issue is that metallic oars come in a lot of varieties, so there is always that possibility. If you contact your nearest University's geology department through e-mail with some pictures, you might get a response.
        Central Ohio

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        • #5
          Hello! I'm the meteorite collector that pkfrey mentioned. Here is the entry for the 1823 fall of the Nobleborough meteorite in the Meteoritical Society's database:



          Only about 100gms is preserved of the 2.5kg approximate total recovered weight. Nobleborough was a Eucrite, so it would be non-magnetic. The most common meteorite, chondrites, which are stone, are magnetic. The Achondrite stone meteorites, which include eucrites, are not.

          Since your stone is magnetic, it would not be a part of that fall.

          The crust does resemble fusion crust formed on meteorites, but the vesicles I see, what looks like vesicles, are usually a red flag visually. I can see them in the upper portion of the second picture. The tiny holes. That one photo most gives me pause. It's not slag, though, which always shows vesicles.

          The 80's were a bit early for the Northwest Africa meteorite rush, which is still ongoing, but probably not impossible if someone lost it at that time. They are found and collected by Bedouin in the desert, they all carry the designation NWA followed by a number assigned by the Meteoritical Society. I mention this because if your specimen resembles anything, it is the crust on meteorites displaying desert varnish, like the thousands of meteorites from NWA do. I'm looking at your third photo when I say that. Normally, chondrites won't have a shiny crust like that, but the desert environs will varnish fusion crust, or replace it altogether when the crust weathers off. Your stone has that look, but so do non meteorites. So I'm not going to make a call whether meteorite or, as they're called, meteorwrong. There are so many Earth rocks in the latter category.

          Although I've curated a collection for decades, I'm out of the loop as to who you might contact, not having collected actively for years now. I'll check my folders. You would need to get it into experienced hands or a lab that performs testing for meteorites. Russ Kempton of New England Meteoritical Services may be the nearest highly experienced collector/dealer, he's in Mass.


          Rhode Island

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          • pkfrey
            pkfrey commented
            Editing a comment
            Thanks for chiming in CMD, I knew it was you, just didn't remember at the time. I agree with you, but I do think this one should be checked. Better to be wrong than sorry!! Have a MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

          • CMD
            CMD commented
            Editing a comment
            And a Merry Christmas to you and yours, Paul! Yeah, photo IDing is seldom the best check. It can be done, when it is quite obvious. Not impossible that somebody lost a NWA meteorite. Some visual clues are not good signs, but not really difficult to send a very small sample out for testing....

        • #6
          Here is the sample submission page for New England Meteoritical Services:



          He's a good guy. As he states, don't send photos. He will only need a small sample.

          Homepage:

          Rhode Island

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          • #7
            In photo 4, showing the window, I don't really see an nickel-iron metal flecks, which will be present, to some degree, in any stone chondrite meteorite. It may be that the angle of the photo is not showing them, but if none are present, that's not the best of signs, either...
            Rhode Island

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            • #8
              The first two photos are the same slice, of a chondrite. You should see some degree of metal flecks, as seen in photo 2: The round whitish feature in photo one is a chondrule, which gives chondrites their name. You should see some, most of the time, but in meteorites that underwent much metamorphism on their parent body, these features can be blurred and hard to see.

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              Here is a chondrite in which the chondrules are exceptionally well preserved. This meteorite, and its parent body, underwent little change since its formation 4.6 billion years ago....

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              Rhode Island

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              • #9
                Thank you for all your responses . I will try the scratch test tomorrow . Last Summer I took it to our local cooperative extension . They mainly deal in plants , but they gave me a # of a University of Maine geologist in Bangor - I called the # and left a message saying I had a possible meteorite . A week later someone left me a message , giving me another # to call . I called the number , it went to voicemail - the recording asked me to type in the extension # , the guy in the last message never gave me one .
                So I went to the Maine Mineral Museum website . They have a large collection of meteorites and a email link to send pictures of possible meteorites . I sent them several pics and I called the museum & told them I just sent some pics , she was very nice on the phone . A week later they requested more pictures - I sent several more ,I never heard back from them .

                My brother lives in a town next to Mendon Ma. , he's coming to Maine to visit next month - was going to let him take the rock with him and bring it in to get it tested , but their website says they don't allow '' walk in '' services only samples by mail . The museum in Bethel is a 7 hour round trip , I'm not to excited to travel that far especially in the winter . I don't really want to cut of a piece , I don't even know how to do it with my primitive tools .

                I also called a science teacher at a local High School , He has several degrees in Aerospace Engineering . I left a message - he never called back .
                There is a Planetarium in Portland - hour drive . I'll try them after the Holidays .

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                • #10
                  Here's some pages that may help you:



                  And a page describing some "hot rocks" that will trigger a detector and are often misidentified as meteorites:



                  And tests you can try:



                  I have about 35 years experience with meteorites. It is often easy to tell, with photos, when something is not a meteorite. Less easy to tell, from photos, when a rock is a meteorite. The two things I see against the possibility are the vesicles on the exterior, and the lack of metal flecks on a cut surface, in a rock that is otherwise magnetic. That would lean me toward it not being a meteorite, but good luck in your search for a definitive answer.

                  Rhode Island

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                  • #11
                    I did a density test - it displaced 125ml of water when I lowered it in the beaker on a string & I divided it with the weight ( 474 grams ) it came out at 3.792 density .

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