Meteorites?

[roxahoge]

HOw do I know if rocks are meteorites? I am in the Cleveland, OH area. I find lots of rocks that look like boiled rocks, and they have what looks like rusted nails in them. I plan to try to place a picture on the site. These rock are all over a woods near me. I put a magnet up to the rocks, and the "nails" are attracted to the magnet. Thanks Edited July 14, 2012 by roxahoge

[Auspex]

Go to this LINK; it should be very helpful.

[painshill]

Hi roxahoge

Pics would be good… but just to manage your expectations, what you are describing does not conform to any common meteorite type. You don’t get nodular magnetic material studded in a non-magnetic matrix, except in very rare classes of meteorites like Bencubbinites, of which there are fewer than 20 known examples – more than half of which are small fragments recovered by the Antarctic Survey.

The overwhelming likelihood is that you are finding concretions containing magnetite crystals.

[painshill]

OK... now we have pics, we can say those are definitely not meteorites. They're full of vesicles (bubbles/cavities) and you just don't find those in meteorites, except very rarely in glassy fusion crusts on some specific kinds of freshly-fallen meteorite... and then they only occur on the surface, not within the body of the meteorite.

I don't know what that is, but I suspect it may be industrial slag/clinker.

[Auspex]

I'm pretty sure it's furnace slag (or a similar industrial byproduct).

[ashcraft]

I vote with slag. Slag is formed during the commercial production of metals. often from ores. The impurities oxidize and float to the surface where they are skimmed off. They then harden into a pseudorock/concrete looking thing. Are there any smelters in your area?

Furnace jock in a former life.

Brent Ashcraft

[Jyonts12]

To me it looks like vesicular basalt.

Edit: after looking at it some more I would have to say its more likely slag like the others said.

Edited July 30, 2012 by Jyonts12