Need Help Identifying a Rock

[Bob2677]

Hello everyone.
I found this rock about 8 years ago along Lake Superior in the UP of Michigan. It's been outside on my porch and I picked it up the other day and thought I would try to identify it. It weighs 9.2 oz and measures 3x2.5x1.25in. It feels quite heavy and is slightly magnetic. The pattern on the surface is in relief and the underlying stone is pinkish. My brother in law says he has found other similar specimens but I have never seen one. I googled fossils, meteorites, volcanic rocks, early native american glyphs, martian meteors, nothing comes up. It looks to me like some kind of petrified plant material but its odd how it continuously wraps around the stone. If you can help I would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

 

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[unclemac]

...well it is natural, but what it is i cannot say. It is covered by a mineral substance that is eroding away by (i think) a chemical action, either by water or the ground it sat in for a time. nice rock.

 

[Plumbata]

Now that is a lovely rock! I've never seen anything quite like it while hunting glaciated fossil and mineral stones in IL but from what you said about magnetic properties plus density and appearance I'd say it is some form of Hematite (Fe2O3) or Magnetite (Fe3O4), perhaps metamorphosed. I have no idea what would cause the beautiful zones of harder iron oxide to form with a different softer rock in-between but that piece is awesome.

 

[Mdbri]

I’ll go with a lodestone, the pink part I’m not sure

 

[Hawks88]

Beautiful rock. Nice detail.

 

[bologna321]

I've seen a lot of rocks, that one is at the top of cool.

 

[Bob2677]

I’ll go with a lodestone, the pink part I’m not sure

The Lake Superior coastline is very rocky and we were looking for agates. The are lots of pinkish stones up there mostly granite and rhyolite.

 

[rgb1]

not to good looking at pictures however this is my best guess it appears to me to be mainly nickle with a small amount of iron also because of bluish hue it could also containsome osmium it is a hard bluish white lustrous metal with out testing i could not say for sure pink could be caused by copper hope this helps . rgb

 

[Bob2677]

Thank you for your input. The outer detail layer is completely hardened and fused so it cannot be peeled of and is not soft or malleable.

 

[rgb1]

forgot platinum metals are slightly magnetic beautiful specimen rgb1

 

[Bob2677]

How do I get it identified? I'm not normally a rock person. Do I contact an geologist at a university or something? Does it have any value?

 

[ToddsPoint]

That's a neat rock. I just sent pics of it to a geologist friend of mine. We'll see what he says. I'm guessing some sort of iron/hematite something or other. Gary

 

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[buck8point]

Fused is the word I would use to describe it also, and it does resemble a Fusion Crust that might be found on a Stony Chondrite type of Meteorite. Since the crust appears to be evenly spread over the surface, it could be that it it turns out to indeed be a meteorite, it was probably tumbling and not oriented. Oriented meteorites have fusion crust on the side that heated the most on a stable atmospheric entry. It might be worth having it checked out.

 

[ToddsPoint]

My geologist friend doesn't have a clue. He said that is one bizarre rock. You might have something special. Gary

 

[Bob2677]

Thank you!

 

[Bob2677]

One of the interesting things about it is that the more you look at it the more it "feels" like there's something decipherable there. It's strange how the pattern changes and has precise structure. One thought that came to mind is could it be slag of some kind? That area has a long history of iron mining but again when I search for examples I don;t see anything that detailed.

 

[RTR]

Unique, is an understatement !

 

[Kray Gelder]

Hey Bob. Interesting rock. The question would be does that crazy pattern extend throughout the rock, or is it a surface thing only? Throughout, my guess would be a beach tumbled hunk of metal slag. If it's surface only, then you may have a meteorite that was RAPIDLY spinning and tumbling when it entered the atmosphere, many many revolutions per second. Combined with a wind of thousands of MPH, the melted surface may have formed that odd pattern as the spinning and tumbling slowed down.

I think you may need to slice off a piece and see what's inside. The Smithsonian has a meteorite ID service, where you can email some photos, and they will let you know if it's a possibility, or a meteorwrong. I sent in some pics last year, and they got back to me same day. Send the best photos you can get. Good luck.

 

[Doubter in MD]

Hey Bob. Interesting rock. The question would be does that crazy pattern extend throughout the rock, or is it a surface thing only? Throughout, my guess would be a beach tumbled hunk of metal slag. If it's surface only, then you may have a meteorite that was RAPIDLY spinning and tumbling when it entered the atmosphere, many many revolutions per second. Combined with a wind of thousands of MPH, the melted surface may have formed that odd pattern as the spinning and tumbling slowed down.

I think you may need to slice off a piece and see what's inside. The Smithsonian has a meteorite ID service, where you can email some photos, and they will let you know if it's a possibility, or a meteorwrong. I sent in some pics last year, and they got back to me same day. Send the best photos you can get. Good luck.

I might wait a little while on the slicing until you get more information/feedback.

While I admit to knowing very little about rocks, I put it pretty high up on the cool scale.