Is this a sizeable meteorite or just a rusted bit of Iron slag?

[Chris]

We found this on a beach so it could well just be a lump of industrial slag that has rusted into a meteorite like shape. 

I've ground the end to see what's inside and it does look like some of the pictures of Iron meteorites I've seen online. A magnet also sticks to it so thought it was worth a post. 

I'm skeptical because you just don't find meteorites the size of your hand on the beach, so I wont celebrate just yet. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Chris

[Franklin]

It's an amazing find if it is 👍.

[wulfrun]

My money says lump of iron slag...sorry! Hope I'm wrong but...

[Chaz2b]

The only way to know for sure is to get it carbon dated, if that’s possible, but a great find if it is! Here’s hoping.

chaz

[Chris]

There is 30 feet of cliff erosion per year right where it was found, so the thought crossed my mind that it could have fallen out of the cliff?

Then again I doubt an iron meteorite would be well enough preserved in a cliff.  

[CraigT82]

Nice find! 

I’d say it’s definitely not a stony meteorite as they usually have a fusion crust and contraction cracks with lighter mineral visible underneath, also more rounded too. It doesn’t look like a pure iron meteorite judging by the cut face (you could also rule out iron meteorite by testing the density) So that leaves stony-iron meteorites. It does have a bit of a look of a Pallasite meteorite maybe but they tend to have more of a ordered ‘fragments in a matrix’ look to the cut faces whereas this looks a bit more chaotic on the cut face. Pallasite meteorites are some of the rarest of all so likely not that. 

Unfortunately I think it’s probably slag but if it were me I’d get it checked out just in case. 

[Chris]

17 minutes ago, CraigT82 said:

Nice find! 

I’d say it’s definitely not a stony meteorite as they usually have a fusion crust and contraction cracks with lighter mineral visible underneath, also more rounded too. It doesn’t look like a pure iron meteorite judging by the cut face (you could also rule out iron meteorite by testing the density) So that leaves stony-iron meteorites. It does have a bit of a look of a Pallasite meteorite maybe but they tend to have more of a ordered ‘fragments in a matrix’ look to the cut faces whereas this looks a bit more chaotic on the cut face. Pallasite meteorites are some of the rarest of all so likely not that. 

Unfortunately I think it’s probably slag but if it were me I’d get it checked out just in case. 

Hey Craig, nice analysis, thanks! I suspect you and everyone else (including myself) are right in thinking it's slag, but I've just found a meteorite and prospecting forum as a second port of call. 

In my head I'm just waiting for them to confirm it's slag 😁

I'll pass on what they say!

 

 

[PeterStudz]

Might be wrong but looks like what’s commonly called an iron pyrite nodule. I use to collect them as a kid. Often eroded out of cliffs - what part of the country did you find it as that would tell us about the geology. 

Sometimes called “Iron-oxide concretions and nodules” which have been mistaken for meteorites… 

https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/concretions/

 

[Chris]

33 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

Might be wrong but looks like what’s commonly called an iron pyrite nodule. I use to collect them as a kid. Often eroded out of cliffs - what part of the country did you find it as that would tell us about the geology. 

Sometimes called “Iron-oxide concretions and nodules” which have been mistaken for meteorites… 

https://sites.wustl.edu/meteoritesite/items/concretions/

 

Hi Peter, Thanks for the reply, I found it at a place called Bawdsey on the Suffolk coast. The cliffs are eroding fast and we sometimes find fossilised sharks teeth there:

https://ukfossils.co.uk/2012/01/24/bawdsey/#:~:text=GEOLOGY,age (approximately 2.5 Mya).

A chap on the meteorite and prospecting forum said the cut face looked like meteorite but I will need to buy a Nickel alergy/meteorite test kit to confirm. Your suggestion also makes perfect sense with the fast eroding cliffs and I've since looked at pictures of slag which don't seem to match too well. 

It's probably either Pyrite or meteorite........or slag. 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 12, 2022 by Chris

[Mr Spock]

Would be nice to find a meteorite!

[PeterStudz]

18 minutes ago, Chris said:

Hi Peter, Thanks for the reply, I found it at a place called Bawdsey on the Suffolk coast. The cliffs are eroding fast and we sometimes find fossilised sharks teeth there:

https://ukfossils.co.uk/2012/01/24/bawdsey/#:~:text=GEOLOGY,age (approximately 2.5 Mya).

A chap on the meteorite and prospecting forum said the cut face looked like meteorite but I will need to buy a Nickel alergy/meteorite test kit to confirm. Your suggestion also makes perfect sense with the fast eroding cliffs and I've since looked at pictures of slag which don't seem to match too well. 

It's probably either Pyrite or meteorite!

 

 

 

 

That’s useful. It’s London Clay. As it says in Wiki…

”Nodular lumps of pyrite are frequently found in the clay layers.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Clay

Of course this doesn’t mean it isn’t a meteorite! Although out of interest and as a confession - I use to fool my school friends by pretending that the ones I found were meteorites. 

Edited June 12, 2022 by PeterStudz

[AdeKing]

It looks like it might be one of the phosphatic nodules thought to be coprolites (fossilised poo) that are commonly found in the Red Crag.

See this link for details.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://geosuffolk.co.uk/images/Leaflets/Suffolk-Crag-Coprolites.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiY76LQ5aj4AhUNilwKHYmYAv0QFnoECDYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3kS0doX3cthgx6GL7b1K_4

Might be wrong but the above link suggests that they are common where you found them.

Edited June 12, 2022 by AdeKing

[Chris]

11 minutes ago, PeterStudz said:

That’s useful. It’s London Clay. As it says in Wiki…

”Nodular lumps of pyrite are frequently found in the clay layers.”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Clay

Of course this doesn’t mean it isn’t a meteorite! Although out of interest and as a confession - I use to fool my school friends by pretending that the ones I found were meteorites. 

lol I'm tempted to steel that prank if it turns out to be Pyrite 😅

For a second I thought Pyrite could be wrong because I read it's only weakly magnetic, however I'm guessing Iron Pyrite is quite magnetic. 

The Wiki page mentions London Clay and Pyrite practically in the same sentence so it is fairly compelling.  

[Chris]

12 minutes ago, AdeKing said:

It looks like it might be one of the phosphatic nodules though to be coprolites (fossilised poo) that are commonly found in the Red Crag.

See this link for details.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://geosuffolk.co.uk/images/Leaflets/Suffolk-Crag-Coprolites.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiY76LQ5aj4AhUNilwKHYmYAv0QFnoECDYQAQ&usg=AOvVaw3kS0doX3cthgx6GL7b1K_4

Might be wrong but the above link suggests that they are common where you found them.

Hey Ade, I see how you thought so however it's about 80-90% Metal iron, very heavy and magnetic which doesn't fit with coprolites don't think. 

Interesting trivia though, there is a street in Ipswich called Coprolite street!

 

[PeterStudz]

37 minutes ago, Chris said:

lol I'm tempted to steel that prank if it turns out to be Pyrite 😅

For a second I thought Pyrite could be wrong because I read it's only weakly magnetic, however I'm guessing Iron Pyrite is quite magnetic. 

The Wiki page mentions London Clay and Pyrite practically in the same sentence so it is fairly compelling.  

Hmmm… iron pyrite is hardly or weekly magnetic at best. So maybe it isn’t that! Although another iron/mineral nodule might be possible.

[Hawksmoor]

In Suffolk and Norfolk cliffs I often find similar looking nodules of Limonite an iron based mineral. Not usually as big as your find and often with a hollow centre, known locally as 'box-stones'.

George in Lowestoft

 

 

 

 

[AdeKing]

Chris,

Pyrite is very common in the London Clay, we frequently find pyritised casts of trace fossil burrows when we are logging soils from boreholes in London Clay, they are mostly the same grey colour as the London Clay but when these are broken open they commonly glitter yellowish gold.

The reddish brown colour of this is vaguely suggestive of Haematite, but again, this wouldn't be strongly magnetic either.

A test of the mineral type would be the streak which is the colour of the line of powdered mineral left when the mineral sample is drawn across an unglazed ceramic streak plate.  Pyrite gives a greenish black streak, Haematite a reddish brown streak and Limonite a yellowish brown streak from my memory of Undergrad mineralogy....but an unglazed ceramic streak plate isn't something you're likely to have lying around.

I'm not 100% sure what it might be but it does sound like there are several types of nodule that are found in the Crag deposits, or it could be some slag that has washed up.

Hope that you get to the bottom of the mystery.

Ade