[meteorite-list] ID help appreciated

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:42:01 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C8692C5E5D_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi David,

Based on just the pair of images, I'd agree with you and Dave
Freeman that this is not likely to be meteoritic. A little
overly ellipsoidal for a meteorite of that size. The dark
portions are probably magnetite, giving the rock its above-
average weight and also accounting for the compass needle
deflection. Scraping a dark portion of the rock on the
back side of a ceramic tile will likely show the gray/black
streak characteristic of magnetite.

> I also see what I interpret as 'finger prints'. They are indentations that
> look like you did it with your thumb when the rock was still malleable.

Individual regmaglypts tend to increase in average radius
in proportion to the overall size of the stone. I'm not
seeing anything in the image that looks compelling on this
score -- the surface variations are on too small of a
spatial scale to be a good match for regmaglypting.

I leave it to the mineral experts here to offer up some
terrestrial candidates... --Rob
Received on Wed 17 Jan 2001 03:57:57 PM PST