[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

Re: Micrometeorites

Glenn,

     A few months ago, after reading Walter Zeitschel's article in Meteorite!
and performing the experiment he described within it, I decided to try a
variation on his approach.  I did this because when I tried his method I came
back with a lot of things that may have been pieces of the shingles on my
roof that also appear to be magnetic although I did find some possible
micrometeorites using it.
     Since I live on a farm I have access to lots of "clean" dirt.  This dirt
is holocene Mississippi River delta alluvium that is predominately sandy but
with a lot of organic matter mixed in with it (as would be expected).  What I
did was obtain a few samples of this dirt, dry it, break it down into a
powder, and run a refrigerator magnet through it to get the magnetic
particles I was going to look at out of it.  I then lightly pressed a piece
of scotch tape on the magnet and looked at the particles which were now on
the tape with a microscope.
     My results were a large number of shiny, black, microscopic particles
with a wide range of shapes some tending towards the circular, but others
appearing more angular like fragments of something.
      I hope this helped.

Best,
Jens