Rock ... meteorite.. ???

[JerryK]

I found a rock out on one of my trails several years ago. It is about 4" long and a magnet will stick to it. Has several spots on it where it looks like worn down iron... and one in particular that is rectangular in shape. I figure it is an old meteor that got ground/rounded in an old stream bed.. Natural iron deposit... The iron/steel/alien metal/etc does not show any type of rust.. ???????????????

 

[k0ua]

It is possibly a meteorite. A couple of things make me think that. The magnetism, and the lack of rust may be because of a high nickle content, which is also a common iron meteorite trait, and the shape. The shape is roughly in the form of an ablated cone. Upon entry into the earth's atmosphere the rocks will ablate or wear down due to friction and high heat in the form of a cone. This one could have rolled around in a stream bed just like you said removing the signs of high heat.

One way to tell is to cut off a slice and treat with acid. Iron meteorites often exhibit a beautiful structure inside.

acid treated iron meteorites - Google Search

 

[Rock knocker]

It looks like a quartzite or a metamorphosed quartzite. Being as you're from Michigan, one of the great iron-ore locations on earth, I don't think you need to get so complicated in your petrogenesis.

During the Pre-cambrian geologic age, the was no oxygen in the atmosphere. The oceans were full of dissolved oxygen, and the Michigan region was composed of volcanic mountain ranges with shallow seas in between them. When primitive plant life started, they exhaled free oxygen as part of photosynthesis, just as plants do now. This oxygen combined with the dissolved and chemically reduced iron in the oceans to oxidize and precipitate onto the floor of these seas, forming the once common banded iron formations which powered the rise of American industry.

Your rock is a sample of this sea floor, probably mixed with sandstone and metamorphosed during a phase of mountain building about two billion years ago.
Banded iron formation - Wikipedia

 

[Rock knocker]

Iron Range - Wikipedia

The area was subsequently high modified during the ensuing two billion years, most recently by the Pleistocene continental glaciers and likely periglacial jokulaup floods, which could move massive amounts of rocks and soil, and also weather them into the common cobble shape your specimen has.

 

[Industrial Toys]

So cancel the new tractor order.

We have piles of rocks on fence rows. Always hoping I might find a Meteorite the pioneers might have overlooked.

 

[k0ua]

So cancel the new tractor order.

We have piles of rocks on fence rows. Always hoping I might find a Meteorite the pioneers might have overlooked.

I suppose it could be an Hawaiian love stone. Seeing as how the Rock Knocker has dashed my meteor hopes.

 

[JerryK]

WOW....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have not read such large complicated words since, well, maybe never.... Got some actual knowledgeable scholars here on the tractorbynet.... I'm IMPRESSED...!!!! [ I thought maybe it was something that I could trade in for a new rear engine Vette... ]

 

[prichard]

I think there was probably some very interesting info shared here. But for the life of me I understand none of it.

 

[k0ua]

I think there was probably some very interesting info shared here. But for the life of me I understand none of it.

Now, come on, you were taught in grade school about the 3 types of rocks. Igneous, Sedimentary, and Metamorphic.

As I get older, I think I am more of a Sedimentary type now. :laughing:

 

[dickfoster]

WOW....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have not read such large complicated words since, well, maybe never.... Got some actual knowledgeable scholars here on the tractorbynet.... I'm IMPRESSED...!!!! [ I thought maybe it was something that I could trade in for a new rear engine Vette... ]

All is not lost. Maybe you can swap it for a new can of wax.