Do you get on with your neighbors , maybe they are trying to tell you something.
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Not topical or funny, but a warm rock landed in our garden...
(136 posts) (39 voices)
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Sinnick
offlineMemberOk, time for some harder thinking.
1) Both experts reckon it's terrestrial. I'd be tempted to believe the guy who actually touched it, but maybe a 3rd opinion would help (the Man Univ contact, or just phone Manchester Museum - they have 1000's of mineral samples, and it's part of the Univ).
2) I've no idea whether your daughter who found it is a toddler or grown up, so it could have been found anywhere perhaps. Just because you have a circular white ring on your patio doesn't prove anything. Maybe you left a bucket there last summer and didn't notice the mark ?
3) It was a cold day, so something at room temperature would feel warm - you didn't say how warm. Maybe it came from a house ?
4) Do any of your neighbours have amateur collections of minerals ?
5) Do you or any of your neighbours have a cat ? Or do you have visiting squirrels ?
6) If you want to risk damaging it, you could do some tests. Find a ventilated room. Scratch or file a flake of the metallic stuff onto a tissue, add some vinegar and smell it - bad eggs means it's sulphide & VERY unlikely to be a meteor, but may confirm Galena. If you want to damage the green bits, do the same and it might fizz slightly, indicating carbonate (green means copper) - hence Malachite.
7) Both lead salts & hydrogen sulphide (bad eggs) are nasty stuff (not too bad on the scale of things), so wash hands afterwards.
The bottom line is that, if you've figured out what it is, one option is that you have a neighbour's mineral sample ...
Or, I could be talking bollocks.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Ironduke
offlineMemberSinnick, I've been puzzling on your previous comment:
"If it is a meteorite, you might prefer to lend it to the Univ, but take it home as needed."I've tried really hard and I can't think of anytime I've needed a meteorite. Fortunate really, as I don't own one; but nevertheless I'm wondering what I'm missing out on.
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberHi Sinnick,
My daughter is 7. My wife was walking behind her when she spotted it and picked it up (after coming home from school). It was picked up from the middle of the circular mark.
I'd been working at home, when they brought it to me to show me it was warmer than room temperature.
There are dozens of bloody cats about. Can't really imagine one carrying a warm rock, though?
I did email Manchester as you advised. I think I might drop it over one day next week for a third opinion. If I'd found it while out on a walk, I'd be completely happy with the description given today. It's the fact it just appeared from nowhere that does my head in!
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberNews update: no smell of eggs. Managed do get some fragments off with a knife, added vinegar...nothing. Just smells of vinegar.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Sinnick
offlineMemberOk, you're convinced the temperature was above room despite the cold weather, I can't explain that. Carried in a cat's (or squirrel's) warm mouth ? Not as daft as it sounds: last summer I found a white pellet on our lawn - turns out it was a BBQ firelighter, presumably carried by cat/squirrel from a neighbour.
But, I think Manchester is the next step.
Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberYeah, I was indoors at or above room temperature, and it still felt warm to me! It was sleeting outside, do cats go out in sleet? We're blissfully squirrel-free up here.
Do animals carry rocks? Manchester is definitely next...
Posted 4 months ago # -
Sinnick
offlineMemberJust found the British & Irish Meteorite Society:
http://www.bimsociety.org/index.php
and click on "Contact Us"Meteors are monitored by radar, you could contact Jodrell Bank (almost next door to you; great trip for the family)
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/meteor/If it is a meteorite, it will have come from the very weak & little known daytime "Capricorn-Sagitariids", detectable only by radar.
Posted 4 months ago # -
It (a) doesn't react with vinegar and (b) smells of vinegar?
Those happen to be the two classic tell-tale signs of semi-precious Vinegarite.It's the ore from which vinegar used to be extracted before they perfected the industrial process of distilling vinegar from horses' tears.
West Midlands based Mizkan (the vinegar experts) have a contact number 01543 685 555, but its only staffed weekdays during office hours, as far as I know.
If you prefer to talk to them about your rock (or indeed, vinegar) in the middle of the night, I will PM you the manager's home address. I'd love to come along with you, but I'm no longer allowed within 3 miles of his house. ("Rebecca's Law")Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberToo heavy for clinker, and we're nowhere near a furnace. And furnaces don't fire out rocks, do they?
The guy in Liverpool reckons it's a natural rock.
Posted 4 months ago # -
beau-jolly
offlineMemberMalachite is not igneous. It is found underground and it forms with copper ores. Mainly found in Congo and Arizona but other parts of the world too. Closest is Lyon. If it is Malochite it is unlikely to have come from space (unless it was dropped from a light aircraft).
If it did fall out of the sky could it be a bit of space debris from a falling to bits old satelite? I would guess they'd have bits of copper in them.Posted 4 months ago # -
waylandsmithy
offlineMemberSquudge, I reckon you could be on to something with lightning. Still not sure how it travelled though.
I doubt it's worth anything, although if it is Galena it's likely to be an example with a high silver content. Not that silver is worth much these days. Anyway, it's more interesting as a mystery rock. I'll make some phonecalls tomorrow!
Posted 4 months ago #
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