Any meteorite buffs out there wanna take a look see at what I found in my lawn??

[Boxerfan]

I was trying out a new metal detector on my lawn. I was suprised when I dug up this. It is metal & ID's as Iron/ nickle when scanned by my detector. It is magnetic & there is a crust. It streaks dark which is another test...But a corner was damaged & showed a definite sand like grain to the metal. I honed that tip & looked with smalll microscope-It is definitely grainy in structure.

I live in a manufactured home park. The lawn on my space has a gravel layer for drainage. I considered it a pain in the butt while digging a garden. But lookie lookie what I found in the gravel. Gonna be a lot of holes in my lawn at this rate. I've found a few copper pennies & strange metal objects burried long ago-But a meteorite???

I contacted Portland State U. They have a testing department & I'm all of 10 miles away. I hope they get back to me soon.

[FSogol]

1. Cool. I saw one strike as a kid, but could never find it. n/t

[Berserker]

2. The Nickle in the sample

Is a good sign it is really a meteorite. Now if you can trace who the contractor was that brought in the drainage gravel and where they got it you may be on to something. With permission to get on that property where the gravel came from you and your detector could be very busy and happy.
Good Luck!

[ensho]

3. neat. let us know if you find out for sure

nt

[Boxerfan]

4. There is a huge "hot spot" in the area I found it...I was 10 minutes into testing when I found this

So although I feel crummy with a cold etc...I'm going to check for more.

The meters are not dead accurate & are used to try & determine coin type before you dig. They can be fooled easily by rust etc....

I was using a Tesoro silver. A bare bones model with no meter but very good depth & target separation. My fancy unit couldn't discern in that area as there are a ton of "targets". It can be mineralized soil-I already dug out 2 patches. It can be nails & junk. It usually is. But I guess you never know...

Gonna be a lot of holes alrighty.

[Lochloosa]

5. It looks right. Good luck and let us know.

[vvera]

6. Looks like

Magnetite Will it scratch a penny? Is it sort of heavy? You maybe able to ID with a mineral chart.
check this site
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/~mstrick/MinRockID/MinRockInd...

[Boxerfan]

8. It does scratch & it's very heavy.The grain structure is the big clue

Can't see how it could be manmade. I have a few meteorwrongs. Slag,broken metal pieces etc... I just started swinging a detector a month ago but I'm finding all sorts of junk.

I actually handled a real one yesterday that I woulda chucked over my shoulder normally. The detector dealer had a personal collection & showed me a stony meteorite from Arizona that has been verified. It was very light but the metal was dispersed at about 40% through the rock.

It's gonna make a heck of a story if this does verify. Lucky I have a facility that does testing so close.

PS-I'm going outside & do some more swinging! No more posts from me for a while...

[Tikki]

7. Don't know if your..

meteorite (betting it is one) came from around where the Willamette Meteorite was found.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willamette_Meteorite

Let us know what happens...


Tikki

GEOLOGY RULES!!!

[MineralMan]

9. Could be. Might not be.

Get it to the lab. They'll tell you for sure. It's impossible to tell from those photos.

[Boxerfan]

10. Well-They want to take a look so thats a good sign...Check this out BTW

I dug this out of a bulldozed area. The owner was a rockhound & when he passed away the rock shed was just dozed over!.

I always wondered what the heck it was-volcanic I thought. When researching it I found it is likely meteorite impact glass-caused by an large impact in a desert. It's a gorgeous piece.

I called them back-I was out. Hopefully I'll have a definite answer soon. Just dug out 3 nails & a corroded penny so far. But I'm cleaning the area in a methodic fashion. Gonna need a bag of lawn seed thats for sure

[Fumesucker]

11. Looks a lot like a glass tektite to me..

[TalkingDog]

12. I can't put that jaw drop emoticon in the subject line, but : O

n/t

[GreenPartyVoter]

16. Idiots who dozed the shed over could have buried thousands of dollars in the ground.

[Boxerfan]

13. Well this is getting GOOD. Found the mate to this piece!!!

BTW...I found another piece & it mates!. Both are scorched & rounded a bit after they broke up. But on one side the part line is clearly evident.

I believe I witnessed this back in 2002,about this time of year. I was in front of my computor early AM. Heard a loud boom & saw a flash midair just above the greenspace by my house. Later I noticed a branch on my pine tree broken-waaay up high. I didn't put 2& 2 together till today.

The guy at PSU was very nice but assured me the odds are always slim. He also said the "Meteor men" show was driving him nuts. Called them the Laurel & Hardy of the community. I agreed.
He's coming by next week with a camera. The odds are slim slim slim. But I think I got a real find here.



Here's the tree I believe it hit!



Total OMG moment when I found the other piece...
Needless to say my lawn has suffered greatly-Lucky I could care less about that. F4rankly I want it to have as many dandylions as possible for our local bee population.

[meteoritesusa]

17. Nice stone - Get it checked and keep us updated if it's a meteorite.

Hi Boxerfan, The stone you've found seems to be somewhat promising. There are certain visual and physical tests that need to be done to check to see if it is in fact a meteorite, then if an expert says yes then it should be classified. I am hopeful for you!

The tree branch is probably unrelated to the stone you found even if it is a meteorite and I'll explain why. Simply put the stone is too small to have caused that damage.

When a meteoroid (what it's called while in space) enters our atmosphere it produces a fireball caused by the compression of the air in front of the body. At this point the meteoroid is traveling between 10,000 and 70,000 MPH, or cosmic velocity. This is fast enough to super-compress the air producing massive pressures and heating the air in front of the stone and on the outer surface causing the meteoroid to become incandescent and burn bright as if on fire. This phenomenon is now called a meteor. The extreme heat ablates and burns the outer surface of the stone causing regmaglypts (thumbprints) and the black fusion crust that is seen on freshly fallen meteorites.

Typically a small meteoroid will burn up completely very high up, but a larger body may break apart lower in the atmosphere at around 10-15 miles up. At this point the atmosphere slows the meteoroid down to what's called terminal velocity. This is when the "meteor" phenomenon seemingly blinks out and the body or fragments thereof is traveling too slow for it to incandesce. It slows very rapidly from cosmic velocity (thousands of MPH) to terminal velocity (only hundreds of MPH), and enters a stage of atmospheric entry known as dark flight. The meteoroid is still there, only invisible to the naked eye because usually "fireballs" are seen during night-time hours and the meteoroid has been blackened by it's passage through the upper atmosphere. During daylight fireball events and after the meteoroid slows to terminal velocity, some eye witnesses have reported sighting black or gray stones in the air. Some have been so close to hear the stone flying through the air, see them impact, and even rarer some people have been hit by meteorites.

While in dark flight a meteoroid travels at around 200-500 MPH. Not nearly fast enough to do much more than bounce off the ground if it only weighs just a couple few grams. However a larger stone of say 100 grams or more could do some serious damage if it hit a house, car or person. Just recently there was a 308 gram stone that crashed through a roof of a building in Lorton VA. (Just for reference 454g is 1 pound)

My point is that your small stone could not have caused the damage to your tree. It would merely scratch the bark, and bounce to the ground relatively slow speed. That's not to say what you have is not a meteorite. It may very well be.

Let's get back to that. It looks good, but there's only one real way to tell. Get an expert opinion. By the way, your story about a "... a loud boom & saw a flash midair..." by your house. That's the same kind of story people told when the West, Texas fireball happened last year February 15th 2009. That meteorite fall is now called Ash Creek. I was fortunate enough to hunt that meteorite and found a small piece. It was hard hunting, but well worth it.

You have an exciting story, I hope it turns out to be a meteorite.

Good luck! Keep us updated on the stone.

Regards,
Eric

[Boxerfan]

14. Just for giggles-A pick of the metal found in a 6X12 ft section-the area I found them

I'm sure the neighbors feel I'm off & daft so to speak.

[Ian David]

15. Careful...

[Boxerfan]

18. Not a meteorite(darn)...Manganese from smelt process.

I was a bit too hopefull I guess...I did see some very nice examples while talking to the expert. Also, my glass piece is a agate-nice one he said....Oh da well...