What the heck did I just find?

[Rocky77]

I live in Virginia and the soil here is red clay. I dug up this weird rock in my back yard and have no idea what it might be. It's black and glassy and smooth on some sides. It also looks as if it has some air pockets and some goldish tinting to it. It's about the size of a softball, but it's not that heavy as if it were made of iron. I don't live near any mountains and this is just weird. Not sure if it's a meteorite. I put a magnet to it and felt just the slightest attraction if not at all. Hopefully someone can help me ID this. Thanks for looking.

 

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[Rattlehead]

....sorry....still slag! 100% sure.

 

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[gabberbob]

How do you do that? I'm unfamiliar with such a procedure.

I am no do that. I`ts say my friend.

 

[wlb7718]

I have an old iron furnace on my property and have truck loads of that crap on my property .....its slagg. the air pockets are from the coke burning up in limestone and that's what is left over melted limestone and coke. we find some thats more rock looking than glass looking. but they use limestone and sand in the old iron furnaces so you get glass. and then the coke makes the air pockets when it burns out. I had a guy from the historical society come looking for my iron furnace to document it and he told me that when I asked him what it was. he also said it was common for workers to throw garbage like glass bottles from lunch in the furnace as well. if anybody interested in iron furnaces here is the stuff the guy posted on his site about the one on my property. Union 1 Furnace

 

[curious kat]

...Fred Flintstone's bowling ball? ...it is interesting looking. I have lots of obsidian here, doesn't look anything like mine though. But of course there's probably many different kinds that I'm not aware of. I can't tell from the pictures, are there conical fractures on the broken parts, obsidian has that. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Windburry]

If it hasn't been answered, that is called "slag." It is a by-product from smelting iron

 

[JLeonhardy]

It's definitely obsidian. I've been digging it since I was six years old, mostly at Glass Butte in Oregon. How it got there is a mystery, but I found a handful of apache tears in the gutter of a busy street in Berkeley, so stuff travels!

 

[Windburry]

slag

 

[loco oro]

definiately slag.

 

[golden sluice]

Hello, I just moved from Virginia this September... before I left I went their aquarium and history museum. They stated that the largest recorded astroid hit and made Chesapeake bay, debris field was enormous. This peice might be a remnant from it?

 

[golden sluice]

Astro slag.

 

[Windburry]

I would put my life on the line if it came down to it, I'm completely certain that this is 100% SLAG. I have some and I can post the photos if necessary.

 

[loco oro]

i agree

 

[curious kat]

Hello Rocky77....I live where there is Obsidian everywhere....I'm not seeing any "conchoidal fractures" in your piece...of course it's just a picture, you'll have to look and see if there are any? If not, it's probably just slag maybe....this is what you should look for...

 

[loco oro]

iron slag can have conchoidial fracture ,it is esentialy a glass,just like obsidian, .