Strange massive heavy black stone

chriseneim

Sr. Member
May 5, 2013
342
146
Found in the middle of the desert on way to Arizona in i10e. Extremely heavy it was sticking halfway out of sand /dirt looked odd so I picked it up. I always keep my eyes out when on my trips to AZ due to me being a major rock hound. This rock looked so odd. Smooth black almost metallic and it weighs 22 pounds and it is only the size of an iPad hah sorry that’s all I can reference it to size wise. So I brought it home where I could do some examining and I thought what the hell let’s see if it’s magnetic. I read all these posts on meteorite or meteor wrong and so I don’t usually pick up black leverites. But any way I broke it in half I’m sure if it is a real meteor then I’ll be feeling like an idiot. But let me tell you it was so damn hard to break I must of hit it 50 times with a sledge hammer and was about to call it quits when it finally broke. So from what I see there is almost a thick layer of metallic black crust with some sort of other type of rock in center like a quarts or something. It’s got little iron spots on outside and has been oxidation on inside. The magnet is extremely attracted to it and it has more strong magnetic spot more then others. But anyway thought I would see what the pros think ImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573960903.605143.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573960921.362539.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573960959.173957.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961129.146629.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961148.470744.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961170.310577.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961187.700420.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961209.090945.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961308.010089.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961596.590669.jpgImageUploadedByTreasureNet.com1573961643.206787.jpg
 

IMO likely a meteorite. Congratulations. I'm not really an expert though. If you're still in AZ, shouldn't be too hard to find a real expert.
 

Your rock appears to have a fair amount of iron, but has no visual characteristics of meteorites. You are free, however, to present your rock to a qualified meteorite lab for verification.

Time for more coffee.
 

I found this info on quartz in meteorites.

Although for convenience we sometimes state here that the minerals quartz, calcite, magnetite, hematite, and micas do not occur in meteorites, these statements are not entirely true. Each of these minerals are among the many minerals listed by Rubin (1997a,b) and Rubin and Chi (2017) that have been observed in some meteorites. However, all these minerals are minor to rare in any type of meteorite and don’t occur naturally at all in the most common types of meteorites.

There is no type of meteorite in which quartz would be evident without the aid of a petrographic microscope and a petrographic thin section.
 

Most of the characteristics of your rock look good......however, the straight layering lines are definitive for identification as a non meteorite.
keep looking, they are out there
 

That's a hunk of magnetite. :occasion14:
 

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