I am sure you must know why your opinion cannot be taken as gospel. Even if it is a meteor wrong. It is important for the finder to reveal the truth by analysis.Even if your opinion is correct,maybe you could suggest a way of helping him to reach the conclusion with your expertise.Otherwise you are just pissing on someones enthusiasm. I am always grateful to hear expert analysis tips. Please do share your expertise. The pissing on someones enthusiasm angle is less welcome and uninteresting.Boring. Its nice to be important but its more important to be nice.
Only lab analysis can confirm if it is a meteorite. Anything short of that will always be opinion. Even if it's from some one at some Natural History museum. About all one could do with this specimen at low cost is to cut polish and etch it assuming it's an iron or stony iron. That would take diamond saws and grinders. Then some ferric chloride or nitric acid for etching. If a Widmanstatten pattern appears, that is definitive proof or meteoric origin.
If not an iron, then it's off to the lab. And if you can even find a lab to do the work, expect to lose 20 grams or 20% of the material (whichever is less) for analysis including an electro magnetic probe. And don't forget the check for a few hundred $ to cover the costs. But many labs will not accept material simply because they were getting flooded with wrongs that owners insisted were real. And then had to deal with all the insults that followed. Unless you are well experienced in identification, then they will have nothing to do with you. I use a lab out of Australia.
As for this particular story,
- a specimen that small will have gone dark shortly after hitting the atmosphere. And at an extremely high altitude. If you see the light, it will land hundreds of miles away.
- when lit, meteors do not travel in an "arch" to the naked eye. It's a straight line.
- If it indeed was lit up near the surface, then there would have been a sonic boom. Yet no mention of that.
- On hitting a hard surface, a meteorite will fracture, not pancake. Tektites can pancake, but meteorites are only hot on the surface. The core remains cold as space.
- Hydrochloric acid does not determine the presence of nickle. the DMG test is usually used in field tests, but not reliable.
- any new fall found within 3 days would have little to no weathering. This rock is well weathered.
- The rock has no flight markings, that would include regmaglypts, flow lines, rollover lips, etc. The rock is well worn.
As for pissing on someone's enthusiasm, it was clear from other responses that RockForum is not interested in opinions and could care less about the truth. As I noted, my post was for others. If RockForum is sincere about doing the "final test" then he need but find a lapidarist with a diamond trim or slab saw and a polishing lap. Basic equipment any serious lapidarist would have. Once polished, I'd recommend ferric chloride to etch as it's cheaper (<$10) and easier to get compared to nitric acid. Radio Shack used to sell the stuff for etching circuit boards.
Can't wait for the results even though I know what they will be.
