When the iron nickel veins are faint or missing

[1515Art]

I’ve been finding a few meteorites most times I’m out at gold basin, nice when the gold is hiding and confirming them as real is easy when the iron nickel is obvious. Likewise most of the hot rocks I uncover are also fairly easy to identify as terrestrial, I do on occasion bring some home and toss some aside before even getting back to my Jeep but wonder if Im being hasty.

these all have windows with clear iron nickel

these are 4 more that have me guessing,

number one has what looks like thermal shock (could just be desert varnish) is very dense, a window reveals a dark matrix with possibly very faint iron nickel veins and just a couple whitish anomalies and has a light grey brown streak.

 

number 2 is very weathered with heavy pressure leaves a grey light brown streak, the brownish matrix has faint reddish small circular patterns and the surface is rounded and it’s hard to tell has some pin point (possibly) silvery marks and 

number 3 a window also reveals a mass of circular patterns with no real streak.

Number 4 is similar to number 3 except appears more weathered and has a light grey streak.

number 5 is one typical meteorite with classic iron nickel veins it has a brown streak.

 

this is the streak test.

I am assuming the weathered condition has affected the outcome of the streak tests?

Edited October 28, 2021 by 1515Art

[DarkSilicate]

Looks like you have been hunting in a good area.  Nice work.  Might need to have those four analyzed with an XRF gun.  Congrats on the finds.  

[Morlock]

9 hours ago, 1515Art said:

I’ve been finding a few meteorites most times I’m out at gold basin, nice when the gold is hiding and confirming them as real is easy when the iron nickel is obvious. Likewise most of the hot rocks I uncover are also fairly easy to identify as terrestrial, I do on occasion bring some home and toss some aside before even getting back to my Jeep but wonder if Im being hasty.

these all have windows with clear iron nickel

these are 4 more that have me guessing,

number one has what looks like thermal shock (could just be desert varnish) is very dense, a window reveals a dark matrix with possibly very faint iron nickel veins and just a couple whitish anomalies and has a light grey brown streak.

 

number 2 is very weathered with heavy pressure leaves a grey light brown streak, the brownish matrix has faint reddish small circular patterns and the surface is rounded and it’s hard to tell has some pin point (possibly) silvery marks and 

number 3 a window also reveals a mass of circular patterns with no real streak.

Number 4 is similar to number 3 except appears more weathered and has a light grey streak.

number 5 is one typical meteorite with classic iron nickel veins it has a brown streak.

 

this is the streak test.

I am assuming the weathered condition has affected the outcome of the streak tests?

Your assumption is correct.

Meteorites do not streak so what you're seeing is the outside oxidation or weathering on your streak plate, not the actual meteorite itself.

[1515Art]

1 hour ago, DarkSilicate said:

Looks like you have been hunting in a good area.  Nice work.  Might need to have those four analyzed with an XRF gun.  Congrats on the finds.  

A lot of 12 hour days from different spots, they hit pretty good on the 7000 but the new GPX6000 is even hotter you can’t miss the signal.

I’ll look for someone here in Vegas for some XRF testing, the largest one looking at reputable dealer examples shows what appears with casual observation of photographs nearly identical matrix, the black thermal shock example under magnification has small spherical yellow/white objects same color as the window objects visible  protruding slightly from the surface where it is eroded from weathering.

I put them on a scale

Edited October 28, 2021 by 1515Art

[Mikestang]

Based on the windows in #1-#4, I don't think they are chondrites, but given all the rest of your finds they are for sure worth having people look at them in person.  XRF on a chondrite isn't going to tell you much as they are so heterogeneous.

[1515Art]

2 hours ago, Mikestang said:

Based on the windows in #1-#4, I don't think they are chondrites, but given all the rest of your finds they are for sure worth having people look at them in person.  XRF on a chondrite isn't going to tell you much as they are so heterogeneous.

Mike and everyone thank you sooo much for the time and trouble to answer my questions and educate me a little, I hope I’m learning anyway, lol. I know so little about geology and meteorites it’s embarrassing but mostly it is hindering sorting and telling one rock from another like having a book before you knew how to read and all you could do to try and understand the story was look at the pictures, reading the geology stories I now am trying to understand that’s how it feels… ha, thanks to the help at least I’m having a lot of fun, and finding a few actually holding and knowing one way or the other helps a lot.

I’ve thrown all 4 one my discard rock pile and trash bin a couple times at least, lingering doubts and second looks my real goal is to know what I’m looking at. #1 confuses me the window I don’t see much and after several cuts deeper and wider discarded it, then while pulling out the larger after seeing a similar looking example I took a second look at an area heavily eroded under the soil and saw what looked like chondrules similar to a photo Mitchel posted.

but then while trying to take a picture of the little yellowish balls under magnification I spotted this I can only guess is a quartz of some kind condemning it to being terrestrial?

sorry these aren’t more clear the one on the right sparkles like little white gem stones set in yellow gemstones tiny but very pretty, but some kind of ironstone and what are the yellow spheres?

[1515Art]

So, I wonder if these little spherical inclusions formed the same as in the vesicular basalt?

[1515Art]

I did a better polish on the oversized probably window that I’d cut into rock #2 and took some better pictures, it is very dense feels similar in hardness to jade or harder, my belt sander with as much pressure as the sanders motor would allow me to apply with 100 grit belt had very little effect mostly polishing rather than cutting. Shining my stream light on the polished surface there is a translucency to the to it the picture fails to capture.

there are some other spots on the exterior that also look more translucent  like the in the matrix?

[1515Art]

I had some XRF testing done today on the 4 rocks, this was a pawn shop/gold buyer about 30 minutes from me. When I got there cold, I didn’t call because a no over the telephone is harder to work with than if I just ask in person out of the blue then if I get a no I can cry or something, lol. we’ll I needed to beg a little this wasn’t a pawn dealer you could brows around and shop the XRF was set up for testing precious metals and I think my being there was an inconvenient interruption to his me time on his favorite internet channel, there were no other customers and I was willing to pay. Anyway after a little more begging tears were unnecessary they all got a quick run through the XRF the whole process done as fast as possible in under a minute, bairly time to scan the results and asking for a printout was pointless.

I don’t remember all the data but surprisingly there was more than expected although the results only give a percentage of the metals with relation to themselves and in no way reflects the actual percentage overall. Stone number 1 as Mike pointer out is most likely hematite at mostly iron alone, number 2 tested just under 10% nickel around 80% iron and 10% other I didn’t have time to really look long enough to remember, number 3 is interesting it tested around 3% nickel some iron and 3 or 4 other metals he nor I recognized, number 4 tested iron and chromium maybe?

so 2 and 3 being the most interesting and things still looking possible, I did find a comparison for number 3 however I’ve no idea if the example I found is what it claims to be or how honest this dealer is? I take this example with great skepticism but? For what it worth in this example it is similar and I’m not seeing what I would significant obvious differences but for now, it is just interesting, I’m not sure if 3% nickel in relation to the other metals is what I would want it to be?

 

doing some more research chromium is commonly found in meteorites and is in higher levels in lunar  examples than earth rocks and nickel is not commonly found in lunar meteorites, the look is also somewhat unique not like typical chondrites so identification is more difficult for experienced hunters and correctly identifying and example by a novice hunter unlikely the article I read the author explained he has looked at many examples from North America submitted as lunar but at the time of the article it stated no lunar example has yet to be found in North America although it is assumed examples most likely exist, more interesting information if accurate.

an example (I don’t know if this is in fact lunar) alongside the rock from my discard pile, the color is off in my picture the two examples are nearly identical in color

Edited October 31, 2021 by 1515Art