Metiorites. Are They Rare?

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Mum and I have one that almost hit us on a sunny day back in the late 1980's. (Mum says 1987).
We were walking up the lane and we heard a sound and a thud. Back then the lane had no tarmac and was an ordinary rough stone road with potholes. We did not know what it was so though we had a brief look, we carried on up the lane to the main road. Think we were taking the dog for a walk. When we came back about ten minutes latef Ifound it. We had overlooked it as we assumed that whatever fell was larger. It had not occurred to us that it camefrom outer space. It was atually lucky I did not find it straight away as it was hot as it has burnt in soil marks on one side where it hit the ground.

Now what is odd about this one is that (As Mum found it again while de-cluttering old drawers) it seems to be made out of solid black glass or something like it. It is only small, about an inch wide and about an inch and a quarter high, but is heavy for its size, and has a single very thin hairline white streak from top to bottom so is not quite completely black.
Other than that it is shiny and black and smooth like glass, though is in a slightly irregular form.

I looked today on the internet and I can't see anything like it. Is it rare? Can metiorites be made from a glass-like rock?

It is strange.

There is such a thing as "volcanic glass". Also known as 'obsidian'. It competed with flint as the favorite material for our cave ancestors to make stone tools and spearheads out of. Its chemically the same as glass in your window. Does tend to be dark. But see-through.

Then there are 'glasses' which can be any chemical substence that cools so fast that it doesnt have time to form a crystalline structure. Steel, molten rock etc, can form 'glasses'.

But Ive never heard of glass meteorites. Though beads glass are found at impact sites (big craters) made by big meteors (similar to those found at the Trinity site of the first made made nuclear explosion) in which Earth soil at the impact melts and then solidifies into glasses.

It is not see-through. It is too black to be see-through. Definately was hot when it hit the ground due to the baked in dirt marks on the one side.

I meant 'see into it', and that you would be able to see all of the way through if it were as thin as a window pane.

This is not see through as is far too black.

Opaque. Black.

Does it have little holes? Like those made by bubbles in solidifying metal...like clinkers?

No. Is smooth like glass. Only tiny pitting-like holes are where it hit the ground where the clay-like soil touched it. Other than those small areas it is smooth. Is interesting.

Does it look like this one?

https://www.space.com/18019-martian-met ... hotos.html


Some meteorites are very valuable, as they may contain high concentrations of iridium. On Earth, it is quite rare to find that element in the ground.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium

I have a small collection of different meteorite pieces that came from much bigger samples. One of the smallest ones that I own was once part of the moon billions of years ago. Unfortunately it only weighs 0.0065 of a gram. There is an active market for meteorites for both researchers and collectors. My favorites are iron meteorites that show clearly defined crystal field lines from the metal slowly cooling in outer space. You can see this best if the sample is cut into thin slabs.

Trinitite samples can be tested with a G-M counter, as they should still be a little radioactive over the base level. The radiation is leftover fallout from the bomb test.

It might be interesting if Mountain Goat has his possible meteorite measured with an X-ray fluorescent gun (determines the percentage amounts of each element in the sample). The test is non-destructive and could be done at a local university. X-ray fluorescent guns are often found at places that buy gold items. It should be cheap to test it. Just be careful that someone might want to buy it from you for the metal content if you have it tested that way at a pawn shop. Not everyone knows the value of iridium and pawn shop owners usually do know.

You might want to take your meteor to a museum and tell your story. Someone there might be able to tell you more.

My sister was about 12 when she was digging in the back yard. She was working on a school project. It was supposed to be a way to get water, a science experiment. The idea was to dig a big hole in the ground, put a can at the bottom and sheet of plastic over it, with a small rock in the middle to make a cone with the point hanging above the can. The sun would heat the soil releasing water into the air, the plastic would block the water and droplets would collect on the bottom of the plastic then run down to the rock and drip into the can. The hole was supposed to be six feet across, round as a circle and about a foot deep. While digging in the backyard she dig up a bone, half a foot long and two to three inches thick. My mother got the idea to call the museum to see if it could be identified. She explained about the school project. One of the scientists from the museum agreed to look at it and identify it. He pronounced it to be the hip bone of an immature sheep. Sorry, no dinosaur. Probably a leg of lamb bone the dog had buried, probably the previous owner of the house had a pet dog.

These two pages are interesting and relevant. They may be helpful


https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/p ... l-korotev/


https://www.meteorites-for-sale.com/met ... ation.html

Unfortunately, as brother and his friend are here both using the internet, each time I try to click on a link this tablet (My Mums as mine refused to charge about two weeks ago) it throws me out of Google so I have to log back into WP again.

This metorite thing is not metal at all. Is more like thick black glass of some sort? Does not really look that exciting though apart from the tiny thin white line.

Another Link:

https://www.usgs.gov/faqs/i-think-i-fou ... -tell-sure

Maybe you can look at the links at the library or at a friend’s house.

Most meteorites will be attracted to a refrigerator magnet and are shiny on the outside. They are usually not hot by the time they reach the ground.

The link from my previous post (wustl.edu) has lots of detailed information.

Tried link but it threw me off Google again. This one was hot when it hit the ground as the earth is baked into it. Was wondering if I should remove the small pieces of earth with a scrubbing brush? What was rather odd was it fell in the sunshine and not at night, as I thought these things only came at night?
It fell at quite a steep angle being close to 90 degrees but not quite. More like 80 degrees, and hit the ground (The lane) with a loud "Thud". Such a thud that my Mum and I looked for something much bigger so initially we did not notice this thing, as it was only an inch and a quarter high by an inch wide as a rough size.

Its easier to see shooting stars (which are really little falling rocks burning up in the atmosphere) at night then in the day. But cosmic debris hits the earth day and night.