Possible Meteorite??

[brokengold]

Hello everyone, 

Just wanted to post a few pictures of a possible meteorite found on my aunts Ranch back in the 90's. My cousin found it in a deep pit. He believes it could be a meteorite. It weighs over 48 lbs. Found in California. I believe it is a meteorite that I found an article about it from the 1800's. Where it was described to have hit the earth, and where it was found are pretty much the same area. My cousin, after all this time wants to get it assayed whether it is genuine or not. I wish I had one of those xrf scanners to see what metals are in it. 

Take care

[GotAU?]

Was the pit a burn pit?  I don’t think it’s a meteorite, I think it is melted metal though, maybe aluminum or lead, possibly industrial slag, furnace byproduct, or smelter waste.  Meteorites don’t typically have large vesicle’s (melted bubbles) on their surface, among other characteristics that doesn’t have.

Meteorites are also very dense, and it’s hard to tell from this end, because we don’t know how big it is or its volume. So try this out:

First - is it magnetic?

Another piece of evidence you could use to help figure out what it may be is to calculate the specific gravity of it - fill a bucket of water to a level that will completely cover that specimen, try to get all the air bubbles out of the specimen, and use tape or a pen to mark the two water levels: before and after you put the specimen in the water.  Then, take the specimen out of the bucket, and be sure that the water level is back at the same lower mark as when you started. Then using a measuring  cup, refill the level back to that highest mark when the specimen was in the water - that will give you the volume of water that the specimen displaced which equals its volume.

Then divide the weight of the object by its volume, and that’ll tell you the density of the specimen.

Normally, I like using the metric system for density calculations (in grams/cubic centimeter) , but I found this density chart of a variety of metals that may help narrow down what type of metal it may be, but you will have to convert your volume to cubic inches. Also note it may be a mixture of different metals melted together as an alloy, so it may not be exact:

 

Specific gravity you won’t really have to worry about, but just to describe what it means is the weight of the volume of water that the object displaced divided by its weight. 
 

Here’s some typical densities of meteorites versus slag (lbs/cubic inch):

Iron meteorite  0.271–0.289

Stony meteorite 0.108–0.134

Slag 0.072–0.108

 

Finally, check it with this:

https://geoscience.unlv.edu/what-to-do-if-you-think-that-youve-found-a-meteorite/

[Dutchman4]

I don't see the typical fusion crust that meteorites have.

This one is from Gold Basin, AZ

 

[Mike C...]

Leaverite-Looks like slag 🤐

[Bedrock Bob]

It's some type of refractory waste. Slag, thermite, etc. 

It's a good piece to learn meteorite ID though.

It's got voids. Meteorites are dense.

It was molten and has folds and contour where the metal solidified. Meteorites were never molten or even hot. The only heat is on the very surface. 

Meteorites have a fusion crust where ablation has smoothed them. This piece dosent have any crust.

Terrestrial rocks can be magnetic, but the iron on earth is in mineral form. Meteorites and slag have free metallic iron. It can be difficult to distinguish refractory waste from meteoritic iron without expert analysis.

Cut or file a corner off so you can see the inside matrix. Slag will have bits of trash and oxidized flux, bubbles, etc. An iron will have solid, dense metal. A stony meteorite will have a grainy texture of unoxidized minerals with streaks or spheres of iron. 

There are many guides and instructional videos you can follow. Play with it a bit and make some simple observations. "Rocks" like this are great learning tools.

With Meteorites you learn more from your failures than your successes. In that way every dud you find becomes a bit more knowledge. After a million chunks of slag you get pretty good at weeding out the crap. When you can't find anything wrong with a specimen you have one that you can get a professional analysis on. 

Tip- assays and xrf are worthless to identify a space rock. Stick to the basic ID procedures. If further analysis is warranted an expert opinion is the only way to go about it. There is no definitive information to be gained by scientific analysis unless you are a scientist doing the analysis.

[GaryC/Oregon Coast]

No, sorrry!