[meteorite-list] give your opnion on this plz

From: Matson, Robert <ROBERT.D.MATSON_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sat Dec 4 00:03:52 2004
Message-ID: <AF564D2B9D91D411B9FE00508BF1C86904EE6208_at_US-Torrance.mail.saic.com>

Hi Mark,

> It's my first post here,I spent a long time just
> lurking,I hope it will be of help...
> In fact it's just to show some pics of a small stone
> that was found in Belgium some weeks ago.
> The guy who found this stone says it sticks to the
> magnet. It was found near the city of Arlon.

Thanks for sharing with the list, Mark, and welcome out of
the lurking closet!

The specimen looks interesting -- particularly its odd, elongated
shape. As Dave Freeman opined, the shape is pretty uncharacteristic
for a meteorite (though not all that dissimilar from many tektites).
It's not a tektite, of course, but if I ran across this stone in
the Mojave desert, I would certainly pick it up and give it a closer
look.

However, given that it was found in Belgium (a relatively wet locale),
the exterior color is pretty black for a meteorite -- with the possible
exception of a fresh meteorite fall.

How dense is it? And when your friend says it sticks to a magnet,
how strongly? Like a magnet to iron (VERY STRONG), or only weakly?
(Other questions: what type of magnet are we talking about? And
can the magnet pick up the stone?)

The shape would also be unusual for magnetite, but magnetite is
certainly a possibility. The best thing to do is file down a
corner as others have suggested -- you really need to see the
interior.

Cheers,
Rob
Received on Fri 03 Dec 2004 11:59:30 PM PST