Unexpected find while fossil and agate hunting in Arizona

[Ledkreplin]

Hello my name is Dean Kreplin I live near Albany NY we were on a 6 month in 2016 RV trip we visited most of the desert southwest here are some pictures of what I think might be an iron nickel meteorite that I found while petrified wood hunting in Arizona I am hoping that it is a piece of space rock it passed the magnet test and there are some flow lines and dimples in the pictures it weighs 26 grams and is pictured sitting on my stereo microscope Thanks for your help and for looking Dean Kreplin

 

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[SD51]

Welcome to T Net Dean! Someone with more knowledge than me will help you on this one. Sure looks good!

 

[Red-Coat]

Welcome to Tnet

I think not. Nickel-Iron meteorites rarely come out of the ground with no rusting unless they are very recent falls. Even then, if you can see flow lines then you would also expect to see at least some kind of fusion crust. One thing to bear in mind when using meteorite pictures from the web as a point of comparison is that most of the shiny metallic ones you see only look like that because they have been cleaned to improve their appearance for display.

I don't think those are flow lines as in 'atmospheric flight'. although they may be flow lines from movement of molten material (or heat shrinkage features produced during cooling of molten material)... ie terrestrial igneous/volcanic features. Flow lines in meteorites are usually aligned to an ablation face or other aerodynamic shaping.

What you are describing as 'dimples' are pretty obviously vesicles (not regmaglypts). They're very rounded and smooth, as you would get from gaseous expansion in something molten. You simply don't find those in meteorites, but they're common in volcanic material (and also in man-made industrial slag).

Attraction to a magnet is not uncommon in terrestrial volcanic rocks and is usually because the rock is rich in iron minerals with magnetite as a proportion of those minerals. Absence of rust is also not uncommon because the bulk of the iron is already in an oxidised state.

 

[Ledkreplin]

Thanks for your opinion

Welcome to Tnet

I think not. Nickel-Iron meteorites rarely come out of the ground with no rusting unless they are very recent falls. Even then, if you can see flow lines then you would also expect to see at least some kind of fusion crust. One thing to bear in mind when using meteorite pictures from the web as a point of comparison is that most of the shiny metallic ones you see only look like that because they have been cleaned to improve their appearance for display.

I don't think those are flow lines as in 'atmospheric flight'. although they may be flow lines from movement of molten material (or heat shrinkage features produced during cooling of molten material)... ie terrestrial igneous/volcanic features. Flow lines in meteorites are usually aligned to an ablation face or other aerodynamic shaping.

What you are describing as 'dimples' are pretty obviously vesicles (not regmaglypts). They're very rounded and smooth, as you would get from gaseous expansion in something molten. You simply don't find those in meteorites, but they're common in volcanic material (and also in man-made industrial slag).

Attraction to a magnet is not uncommon in terrestrial volcanic rocks and is usually because the rock is rich in iron minerals with magnetite as a proportion of those minerals. Absence of rust is also not uncommon because the bulk of the iron is already in an oxidised state.

Thanks for your insight I feel your knowledge of meteorites is far greater than mine the absence of volcanic material ie basalt actual lava flow that I collected elsewhere and the absence of mines and industrial waste from smelting I found this in the desert far from human intrusion and my photography doesn’t show the metallic shine but it does have one I do not have a proper way of photography through my microscope but I am posting some I took through 1/2 of the scope thanks again this piece is a fragment broken ie jagged edges View attachment 1858372 View attachment 1858373

 

[Red-Coat]

Unfortunately your pictures don't show. You need to upload them, not just attach them as links.

'Volcanic' only means that magma has solidified after reaching the surface. It doesn't necessarily imply eruption in the sense most people understand it and, in any case, volcanic bombs can travel a huge distance from their ejecta source. Nor does it imply that there have been lava flows... whether still visible millennia later or not.

If I had a dollar for every time I've seen/heard "but there are no volcanic rocks in my area" in relation to claimed meteorites then I'd be a very rich man.

 

[Kray Gelder]