Did my son find a meteor?

Jul 26, 2020
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Did my son find a meteor? - No, appears he didn't...

Hi from England.

Family and I were down on the English coast today looking for fossils and my son found what we though was a lump of rusty metal. We let him bring it home so we could google it but no luck. I think it might be a stone meteor but am obviously no more experienced at this that being able to google!

Details
Size: 14cm x 10cm x 7cm
Volume: 270ml water displaced
Weight: 2.2kg. It feels heavy for it's size so no like a normal rock. If my math is right that's about 8,000kg per m3

The outside of it i would describe as crystal/scales in appearance and the coulor is like graphite with orange on it. So a dark grey but kind of shiney and some of it looks like it rusted.

We put a strong magnetic near it but zero attraction so not a lump of iron.

A corner of the crust has been chipped and underneath it looks like stone but under a small magnifying glass it looks like fools gold.

Completely lost as to what this might be...any pointers would be great.

View attachment IMG_20200726_151919.jpg
View attachment IMG_20200726_152234.jpg
 

Last edited:
Upvote 2
I am no expert but look like one to me. Like I said, I am no expert so I may be wrong. Also, welcome to treasure net!
 

Not a meteorite. Probably basalt with hematite.
 

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thank you - the description and pictures for basalt hematite do look like the lump of rock we now have sitting on our kitchen table.
thank you for that - son still happy as i said it's "a rock from a volcano".
 

I was going to suggest platy hematite. The hematite (an ore of iron), leaves a "platy" look in its crystalline structure sometimes. I wish I could remember all this stuff.
 

I have to agree with Terry on this one. While your rock is clearly not a meteorite, having no visual characteristics of such, and nothing in your description indicating any. It does, however, have visual characteristics of hematite on basalt.

Time for more coffee.
 

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