Potential meteorite ID please?

[giverashot]

Can I please have a visual assessment by anyone of this small rock. I found it with my metal detector sounding off loudly, in a very isolated bush area almost totally free of any previous humans. Up on high and dry ground, away from any waterways like creeks or ponds. I will hit it in the spring time to search the area further.

Shows -6 on a Minelab X-Terra 70 and sticks to a magnet very strongly and the outside part is rusted and pealing away due to me handling it after. Once the outside is pealed off, the underneath and inside is a completely different texture than the outside being dark-gray to black in color. I think it is a meteorite but I am not sure?

Thank you as any help is truly appreciated.

(The first picture is one side of it and the next 2 pictures is the other side when it is turned over.)

 

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[allen_idaho]

Tough call. It very well could be. Being highly magnetic would indicate heavy iron content which is common in most meteorites. The surface texture looks like it could have once had a fusion crust on it.

I would say that the best bet in finding out for sure would be to gain access to a rock saw and cut a tiny piece off and look inside. If it is the more common chondrite meteorite, you will see several metal flecks inside.

Another option would be to get yourself a grinder and just grind down a corner. This is to expose any native iron that may be present in the rock.

However, it is more likely that what you have found is a piece of magnetite.

 

[extractor]

Allen has some good advice

 

[giverashot]

Thanks everyone and especially for your assessment Allen. I must saw or grind off a piece then to see if there are any "several metal flecks inside.." or to "expose any native iron". I did not know that magnetite occures in solid rock pieces, as I have never heard of someone finding it with a metal detector before in a rock or stone but only by gold sluicing and panning in the form of black sand. Still a possibility that it is a meteorite.

This is a reply I had on another Forum and my words are in Maroon color:


Thank you very much for taking the time, I just had to find out if I had a meteorite field or not!

It looks like magnetite/hematite with perhaps some limonite on the outside (yellow parts). It also looks partly layered; meteorites are not layered. Do a streak test on some unglazed tile. If it is black/dark gray – it is magnetite; if it is red – it is hematite; and if it is yellow then it is limonite. Make sure you streak the gray part of the stone and not the yellow crust. If it is silver and shiny - then it could be an iron.

I did a streak test as you said. It gouged out the unglazed ceramic at first with no color then with softer strokes it came up as black/dark gray, just like light colored pencil lead. So then if there is a probability that it is a magnetite piece instead of a meteorite I do not know? The only way to tell for sure would probably to get a test at a College or University but Edmonton is 100's of kilometers south of here.

Magnetite is very common and makes a detector go nuts. It is also a little lighter then an iron meteorite, 5.7 vs 7.5 gm/cm^3.
Also if you see any sign of crystals then it is magnetite.

Have not filed-grinded off a piece yet to create a window.

One question – where did you find it (you can just say a region)

Nothern Alberta, Canada.

Good luck.

Thanks,

Greg S.


Will keep you posted Allen of any further progress.