Found in a cave 55 years ago in Kentucky

[excav]

This rock was found in a cave long ago in Kentucky. It is hollowed out like a bowl but not by any human. It looks to me like it was part of a shell around something else. You can see in the picture of the bottom where it has been chipped somehow. By looking at this chipped area it appears the dark color is very thin like a skin. Below this "skin" the rock is much lighter in color.
When you first pick it up you are surprised by it's weight, a little over 5 lbs, yet it has no metal content. I've tested it with my pin pointer and a magnet, nothing.
One end of the inside looks as if it had been melted at one time.
Any help would be appreciated.

 

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[tamrock]

A type of iron oxide concretion iron-oxide concretions & nodules 2

 

[sutphin]

JUST PLAIN NEAT AS HAEL ......

 

[excav]

Thanks tamrock, it sure looks like the iron oxide on that website. Is there really any iron in iron oxide? This rock has no effect on a metal detector.

 

[tamrock]

Thanks tamrock, it sure looks like the iron oxide on that website. Is there really any iron in iron oxide? This rock has no effect on a metal detector.

Not sure why a metal detector wouldn't work on it. Maybe it isn't a rich enough concentration of metallic iron in your specimen? Basically iron oxide is "rust". Would a pile of pure rust be detected by a metal detector? That I don't know.

 

[Bumpstick]

I find Iron concretions all the time. I bring them home and save them. The coolest ones I have look like a bunch of grapes.

The one I thought was a meteorite seamed to get up and walk away. I cant find it any where. ?

 

[huntsman53]

Not sure why a metal detector wouldn't work on it. Maybe it isn't a rich enough concentration of metallic iron in your specimen? Basically iron oxide is "rust". Would a pile of pure rust be detected by a metal detector? That I don't know.

The old White's analog metal detectors will sometimes null (cancel) out with a "vooop" sound and then no Threshold tone will be heard momentarily as the coil passes over a piece of degraded (rusted) Iron. The metal detector will respond in the same manner when the coil passes over a void (i.e. a tunnel, a cave that is close to the surface, a hand dug dirt bunker, etc.) in the ground. I for one, would like to know why that these old analog metal detectors react to these in pretty much the same manner!


Frank

 

[Ant]

https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=AwrBT4IdAbpVUuIAoxlx.9w4?p=geodes&fr=&fr2=piv-web&psqn=2

Where do geodes come from? » Scienceline

Wiley Well District - Geode Beds El Centro Field Office, Bureau of Land Management

 

[Ant]

It might be a geode ^^^

 

[M_d_in_guy]

a very cool looking specimen of sorts, it would be interesting to see if an xrf would be able to deliver metalic results.....

 

[fowledup]

It's a Rattle stone

A concretion composed of concentric laminae of different compositions, in which the more soluble layers have been removed by solution, leaving the central part detached from the outer part, such as a concretion of iron oxide filled with loose sand that rattles on shaking. Also known as klapperstein.

Here is a video on how they were turned into Iron

 

[FriscoT06]

Could also be a fossil of sorts. I have found a fossilized whale inner ear bulla that looked similar before. Good luck!

 

[bradyboy]

The one side looks like the inside of a turtle shell
Brady

 

[tamrock]

It's a Rattle stone

A concretion composed of concentric laminae of different compositions, in which the more soluble layers have been removed by solution, leaving the central part detached from the outer part, such as a concretion of iron oxide filled with loose sand that rattles on shaking. Also known as klapperstein.

Here is a video on how they were turned into Iron

Great video, I told my wife I want us to someday take a trip to L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. They have the remains of a large furnace to smelt iron. This video I'm thinking depicts what it must have been like at L'Anse aux Meadows so long ago, but on a larger scale..Where is Vinland?

 

[excav]

Great video, I told my wife I want us to someday take a trip to L'Anse aux Meadows in Newfoundland. They have the remains of a large furnace to smelt iron. This video I'm thinking depicts what it must have been like at L'Anse aux Meadows so long ago, but on a larger scale..Where is Vinland?

I remember reading somewhere that Vinland was a reference to the American continent by the Vikings. As in Vineland where they may have got their grapes for the wine for those huge drunken bashes they supposedly had.

 

[fowledup]

Yep I would love to go see that! However I'm not so sure the wife would share the same enthusiasm, lol! She'd rather go to Bali- Can I dig and mine there?

 

[tamrock]

Yep I would love to go see that! However I'm not so sure the wife would share the same enthusiasm, lol! She'd rather go to Bali- Can I dig and mine there?

I know. She was showing me stuff of some beautiful beach resort and then showed her the coast of Newfoundland. One picture shows an iceberg just off the shore, but she said it looked cold there and no beaches. Maybe I'll just go by myself.