basaltic shergottite

[RELICDUDE07]

basaltic shergottite

Found some strange rocks ? Looks like it to me - where could i take them to find out?

 

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[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

This stuff does stick to a magnet......

 

[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

 

[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

 

[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

Some more pics i found online.Anyone that can help me or give me some test to do on the rocks , that may help prove they are will receive a free rock ! Pm me your address

 

[Tuberale]

Re: basaltic shergottite

I'm sorry. I'm incompetent in this area. Local basaltic andesite has enough iron content to stick to a powerful magnet, but weakly magnetic otherwise, so I'm not sure a simple magnet test will work with all basalts or andesites. One of the reasons it's to dang hard to find meteorites in Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, etc.

In addition, the only nickel mine in the United States was located near Riddle, Oregon. So tests for nickel alone are not always conclusive.

Something that would help IMO is the state where the material was found. For example, my uncle gave me a small piece of what he said was Canyon Diablo meteorite given him by a former curator of the museum there.

 

[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

Thanks-yes i can see how hard it is to id rocks.It was found in Florida

 

[Tuberale]

Re: basaltic shergottite

Florida!? That puts another spin on it. Not much of the Appalachians in Florida, and those are very old old rocks indeed. Most of Florida is under 300 feet elevation, with little more than crushed coral and limestone underpinings.

What really doesn't make sense to me is that basalt is volcanic in origin. If this is basalt, what volcanic activity produced it? I know of some volcanoes in Cuba, but that's still 80 miles away.

I'm afraid you really are going to have to contact a geologist for this one, relicdude.

On a different tact, I read that Mel Fischer was finding meteorites while searching for the Nuestra Senora de Atocha. Mostly they were tossed overboard after being found. If you found these underwater it lends credence to the meteorite scenario IMO.

 

[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

Thanks for the help Tuberale... I read 1 that said a pipeline could come up from the ocean floor and bring this type of rock ? Maybe i found the area of the pipeline.Or the rock came from the sky?I am searching in my area in the morning for a place to take them....Oh ------ This rock shoots sparks off it when cutting even with a wet diamond blade saw...I have some that look just like this!!!!! http://www.meteorites.tv/29-lunar-meteorite-nwa-479

 

[Tuberale]

Re: basaltic shergottite

Certainly a volcanic vug could erupt almost anywhere. But Florida is not noted for that activity. All of the Hawaiian Islands are volcanoes, for example.

Anytime enough iron is present in a rock it will yield sparks when cut with a diamond saw. I can see visible globules in your close-ups of what looks like iron, but in tiny proportions.

I hope your assessment is correct, because even in tiny quantities your title suggests the rarest of the rare. So rare that even slabbing the material must be considered carefully.

So rare that other options must be considered as well. You may have found ballast stones from a shipwreck. While uncommon that would be quite possible in Florida, and much more probable than a basaltic shergottite.

And yet ... every square mile on earth probably has at least one or more meteorite present for every 10,000 years it has been land. Or water. There is no way of predicting what stone will land where.

That leaves looking at the stones with much more detailed equipment than I or most other people have handy.

That said, most real meteorites have fusion crusts, which I do not see on these. A fusion crust is caused by the ablation of air against a stone entering the Earth's atmosphere. Usually it is black or dark brown, sometimes even rusty-colored. It rarely is over a few millimeters thick and covers the entire rock.

Did you weigh the entire stone before slabbing? If the original was less than a pound, it adds to the possibilities of being meteoritic.

One of the foremost authorities on Martian rocks lives in Hawaii. He might agree to take a look at your stone. But most meteoritists are swamped right now (and for the next several years) with material coming from Antarctica.

Another option, but expensive, is to have a detailed chemical analysis (an assay) done on one small piece of the stone. It requires destroying the stone and reducing it to powder, but can give absolute proof of content or all elements down to hundredths of an ounce per ton of material. Cost a year or so ago was $500 for expedited analysis from a lab in Canada. Expensive. But a comparison of the elements will tell you generally whether a stone is meteoritic or not.

Unless you are well-heeled, it may be beyond the reach of most TH'ers.

 

[RELICDUDE07]

Re: basaltic shergottite

Thanks for the help - its just kinda strange to find any rocks in my area beside sea shell rocks .... This is about as big as they get ...