Got A Rock you Want Identified? Post it here! gimme a good picture or 3 or 4!

Hello! I'm a teacher who holds a planetary science degree, but haven't field tested anything within the geology field for years. A student brought this in from Costa Rica. Any guesses?

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Weather worn sea shells. Most likely from a shoreline or an ancient one at least. The porous holes happen as the calcium degrades over time. The picture on the left looks to be the inside edge of a clam type shell. If you look at clam shells you can see that the inside edge of them has a coloration change in the shell, very similar to the coloration change in that piece. The picture on the right appears to be the layering effect of calcium on a large shell type marine organism. This is the layering you see on conch shells and other shells and shows 'growth rings' or layers in the shell, much like a tree shows rings in it's core as it grows.
 

JM2855 said:
Weather worn sea shells. Most likely from a shoreline or an ancient one at least. The porous holes happen as the calcium degrades over time. The picture on the left looks to be the inside edge of a clam type shell. If you look at clam shells you can see that the inside edge of them has a coloration change in the shell, very similar to the coloration change in that piece. The picture on the right appears to be the layering effect of calcium on a large shell type marine organism. This is the layering you see on conch shells and other shells and shows 'growth rings' or layers in the shell, much like a tree shows rings in it's core as it grows.
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Alas, so I was right! It was easy to tell that we were dealing with something calcium-rich, thus sea shells were the perfect match. Thank you for your response.
 

Got a couple that stumped me. This is about the size of a nerf football but very heavy. I'll others later. The "kimberlite" that weighed 41.4 pounds was full of small grains of gold and many different gems "mostlygarnets" I haven't finished and got total on gold but there is something shiny thats heavier than gold I'm assuming its platinum but its shiny-dull and kinda rare for North Carolina. U'm running test now, but what is this?sale01 010.jpgsale01 009.jpgsale01 001.jpg
 

20170520_184150.jpg I found this rock and was wondering if it was possibly some type of meteorite. It is magnetic and sets off the metal detector. Do you have any I'd what exactly what I found?
 

Ashleyann213 said:
View attachment 1453534 I found this rock and was wondering if it was possibly some type of meteorite. It is magnetic and sets off the metal detector. Do you have any I'd what exactly what I found?
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Meteor Right or Meteor Wrong?.........Check some sites on this link to help you determine on your own. https://www.google.com/search?q=met...5i39l2j0l3.10135j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

It looks not to be a meteorite. The stone probably includes iron minerals of some type and a scratch test will help you identify it/them.

Good luck.
 

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geotaughtme said:
Got a couple that stumped me. This is about the size of a nerf football but very heavy. I'll others later. The "kimberlite" that weighed 41.4 pounds was full of small grains of gold and many different gems "mostlygarnets" I haven't finished and got total on gold but there is something shiny thats heavier than gold I'm assuming its platinum but its shiny-dull and kinda rare for North Carolina. U'm running test now, but what is this?View attachment 1453059View attachment 1453060View attachment 1453061
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What ever it is, it could have sulphides in it, I'm guessing. The pics don't really give off many hints as to its identity.
 

Ashleyann213 said:
View attachment 1453534 I found this rock and was wondering if it was possibly some type of meteorite. It is magnetic and sets off the metal detector. Do you have any I'd what exactly what I found?
Click to expand...

I agree with Arizau. Appears terrestrial. Magnetism & detector reaction is likely due to magnetite. A hot rock!
A streak test will confirm. (google it!)
 

Ashleyann213 said:
View attachment 1453534 I found this rock and was wondering if it was possibly some type of meteorite. It is magnetic and sets off the metal detector. Do you have any I'd what exactly what I found?
Click to expand...

A meteorite has a smooth surface with dimples etc but with no holes, ie melted /fused looking on the outside,with no pointy edges,unless its broken or chipped after the fact, yes they are magnetic , this video might help you determine if its real or not. Towards the end he tells you how to "grind" with 40 grit or so a flat section and look for iron flexes or chondrules (a spheroidal mineral grain present in large numbers in some stony meteorites) .

I always try to keep a look out for them when I am out and about, if I remember that is , some meteorites can be worth a bit of money.

 

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Found on the South Fork of the Eel River in Southern Humboldt County, Ca. 1995 after a mudslide revealed it. Mountain agate? It is the size of a baseball. I put a flashlight under it on the pic on the left. Thanks in advance!

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Is this a meteorite?20170524_180104.jpg20170524_180055.jpg
 

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What about this is it agate?
 

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