Why this rock is probably not a meteorite:
1) The density is too low for a meteorite - it's not heavy enough
for it's size.
2) It is very hard; it scratched glass. None of the major minerals
in meteorites scratch glass.
3) It appears to have fractured conchoidally, like glass. Meteorites
don't fracture this way.
4) It is only weakly magnetic.
|
What is it?
It's a piece of chert with a dark coating. Raman spectroscopy showed
the the mineralogy to be quartz. Although the ouside is dark gray,
when we cut it open it was light-colored inside. There was a 2-mm
wide dark coating that was richer in magnetite and organic carbon.
We don't know how this rock obtained it's dark coating. Chert
is common in Missouri, but it's usually cream colored, tan, light
gray, or brown.
|
|
|
