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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 12:32:13 GMT 1
Talking of meteorites, I found this on Friday, on the tip of Headon Warren, five minutes from my house: As you can see, it's a chalk headland, with the odd layer of clay, part of the famed Jurassic Coast: I've never seen a rock like this before, anywhere on the Island, and as far as I can figure it has no business being there. It was almost entirely buried, with just a glint of this intriguing black glass-like sheen showing. The irridescent oleagineous sheen is part of the rock: it's been thoroughly cleaned. This is the back of it: The only puzzling thing, that makes me think twice that it's a meteorite, is that it isn't magnetic - or if it is, not noticeably so. Hence it's a bit of a mystery.
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Post by Progenitor A on Oct 18, 2012 12:51:01 GMT 1
Interesting Nick
But for a meteorite to be magneric it must contain ferrous material. Surely not all meteorites contain ferrous material?
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 13:11:51 GMT 1
No - just the vast majority of them, they reckon. More than 95% - though seeing as the property of being magnetic is the primary test, it's a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy, isn't it?
The thing is - this really is thoroughly cleaned. It's hard not to jump to the conclusion that the reddish-brown residue on the back is not rust. Which does indeed disguise ferromagnetism, to some extent. It may be magnetic - I think I can discern a slight pull, but that might be imagination. It may be just a thin layer of iron left, and it'd be hard to tell.
I should mention that the site was once a WWI battery - and there was another across the bay, just above the Needles, in both wars. It's where they (Wilson, Healey, that bunch of jokers) used to build the so-called independent British ICBM - tried to build it, I should say: the biggest White Elephant in our history. But I don't think they ever tested it there! ;D
But if it's shrapnel - that would be iron anyway, wouldn't it? And where's the rock come from?
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Post by principled on Oct 18, 2012 13:18:43 GMT 1
I found the almost "bituminous-like" colouring in the inside of the rock interesting. I'm not sure if this link takes us any further, but I've learnt something about intrusive and extrusive igneous rock anyway! www.scienceclarified.com/Ro-Sp/Rocks.htmlP
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 13:21:37 GMT 1
I also found 2 lbs of sloes - or slan, as Jean might remind us - up there, which was the primary object of the mission. Any good recipes for home-made gin?
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 13:27:25 GMT 1
Thanks P. My first thought leading me to dig it out was it was obsidian. But, as you can see - this whole coastline is definitely sedimentary. Also - the whole headline has been undisturbed (apart from that battery) for at least 5,000 years. It's a great place for imagining you're back in the Bronze Age.
I think I might have to take it to the museum for an expert opinion. I just don't want it confiscated, I'm rather attached to it - anyone know the law on that?
By the way - I should have mentioned: it's about the size of a tennis ball.
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Post by marchesarosa on Oct 18, 2012 13:28:44 GMT 1
It's a bit like the flint "cobbles" one finds used as building material in Norfolk. They are "stony" in appearance on the outside and igneous or "glassy" inside, too. Just found this in wiki "Flint occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. ....." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 13:45:27 GMT 1
Also worth mentioning is that about thirty feet away from where I dug it out there's a deep roundish pit, about fifty feet deep and something like that in circumference. The National Trust wallahs have identified it as a "quarry" - which on reflection seems somewhat unlikely. Nothing but chalk to quarry, and it's at least half a mile away from any possible settlement. There's also a Bronze Age barrow there - which may have been the origin of the pit. But it could just as plausibly be a crater.
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 13:49:00 GMT 1
Love that striped flint picture! There are quite a few flint houses on the Island too. But it's definitely not flint. As P said, it's more like solidified oil. And it looks as if it's been subjected to great heat.
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Post by marchesarosa on Oct 18, 2012 13:53:20 GMT 1
Then there are amethyst nodules, like this Is the centre of your crystalline ?
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Post by jonjel on Oct 18, 2012 14:15:01 GMT 1
You can have my granny's recipe, which I have modified a bit.
Pint of sloes Pound of sugar Pint of gin.
Do the usual, but what I do then is to adjust the SG with usually a bit more sugar until the sloes are almost in suspension. Then after about 3 months in the dark - shake it every day (the bottle you numpties the bottle) add a bit, or a lot of gin to get a bit more of a kick and flavour.
Very nice too. Elderly relatives are guaranteed to drop off to sleep leaving you in peace after a couple of glasses.
Not so sure about the meteorite. The reddish brown back could be sandstone, but not normally found in a limestone area. Looks a bit like slag from an ironwork furnace to me.
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 18, 2012 16:14:02 GMT 1
You can have my granny's recipe, which I have modified a bit. Pint of sloes Pound of sugar Pint of gin. Do the usual, but what I do then is to adjust the SG with usually a bit more sugar until the sloes are almost in suspension. Then after about 3 months in the dark - shake it every day (the bottle you numpties the bottle) add a bit, or a lot of gin to get a bit more of a kick and flavour. Very nice too. Elderly relatives are guaranteed to drop off to sleep leaving you in peace after a couple of glasses. Thanks jonjel. That's the recipe I've got, and have followed - added considerably more gin though. That was what I was wondering really - having to add perfectly good gin seems somewhat to defeat the purpose! I've just taken out a copper immersion heater - I think I'll have a go at making a still in the garage. Just as a science experiment, naturally. Not sandstone - that would easily come off with a wirebrush. And no ironworks up there, I assure you. Not ruling it out - soldiers do strange things. Burying a bit of slag on a 5,000 yr old chalk path is certainly strange. It's extremely heavy, by the way - not a normal rock at all, more like metal. And not crystalline Marchesa.
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Post by marchesarosa on Oct 18, 2012 20:41:57 GMT 1
Maybe the pit you say was nearby was dug by the stone-agers to find FLINT!
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Post by mrsonde on Oct 19, 2012 3:53:50 GMT 1
That is the National Trust contention, yes. But imo they were stone-agers, not morons. If they wanted flint they could have gone to the beach three minutes away and picked it up.
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Post by jonjel on Oct 19, 2012 9:58:41 GMT 1
Was there a beach there in the stone age?
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