[meteorite-list] 1864: fiction or fact? help!

From: Göran Axelsson <axelsson_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Tue Sep 21 10:41:50 2004
Message-ID: <41503CD0.3010509_at_acc.umu.se>

It's hard to tell anything definite unless you know the size of the
object but
if what I found is right then a "Rod (rd) A unit of length equal to 16.5
feet".

This would give the object a size of 150x225 meter! I don't think you
would find a meteorite of that size intact. You would have a major crater
instead. (OK, I'm pretty shure on it :-)
A meteorite strike of that size is a regional catastrophy according to a
NASA scientist.

The mineralogical part doesn't sound like a meteorite, although I'm more
at home with earth mineralogy and geology. The talc and carbonates
is common in earth environments.

The geological part is also all wrong. To find granite in the center sounds
to me like a granitic intrusion in a serpentinite and that the altered rocks
around the granite got more resilient towards weathering.
We have a few serpentinite mountains in Sweden that stands out from the
surrounding geology. The surface is also quite different from the
surrounding
rocks. It's in the background of this photo.
http://www.geology.neab.net/photos/atok001.jpg
Theese mountains are tough enough to withstand an ice age. The last one
was 7000 years ago and the thickness at least 500m above the peak
of the mountain.

It is by all means a meteowrong and a earthbased geological feature.

As a sidenote there were a meteorite found in sweden almost 100 years
ago with fossiles in it. Anyone want to debunk that one?

:-)

/G?ran

chris aubeck wrote:

>Dear list,
>
>I would very much like to know how much of the
>following may be based on scientific procedure and
>observation, and whether as a whole it makes any sense
>at all. I found the text in an article dated
>originally to 1864 and have translated it to the best
>of my ability from Spanish (in which I'm fluent, but
>this was very technical). It was published in
>Argentina.
>
>As usual with this kind of thing, I don't know where
>to turn, except to the experienced guys on this list.
>
>I'll be doing the internet equivalent of sitting
>"glued to the screen" hoping someone can enlighten me!
>
>Very best,
>
>Chris
>
>*****************************************************
>
>
>I came across a great black rock, ovoid in shape and
>measuring around 30 rods in diameter in its widest
>part by 45 rods in length. I was quite astonished on
>seeing such a large, isolated stone, in the middle of
>the plains; what caught my attention above all was its
>dark and vitrified appearance at first sight. I
>examined it thoroughly and shortly I had no doubt, I
>was standing before an aerolite? but few of such
>enormity have been found to date.
>
>Enthused by my discovery I telegraphed Mr. Smith (a
>geologist and a friend of mine who was then in C?rdoba
>on the way to the mountains) to come and examine this
>curious piece of planetary matter. This he did and a
>few days later my friend Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones and I
>went off to investigate the aerolite scientifically.
>On the afternoon of the same day we began to bore a
>hole into it to analyze the diverse materials of which
>its interior was composed, and for this purpose we
>employed an Argentine laborer named Jes?s Villegas.
>A notable feature, at first sight, are the cracks and
>crags from which considerable pieces must have come
>loose: the whole mass is covered in a certain black
>enamel, from 3 to 9 ? inches thick. The interior
>contains 5% graphitic carbon, magnetic iron sulphate,
>a magnesium and iron carbonate, which could be
>considered a kind of breu merite, an extremely rare
>substance; silica, talc, some complex minerals that
>are not to be found on earth, for example,
>Sheibirsite, which is a double phosphorus of iron and
>nickel, ammonium hydrochloride, a very volatile salt,
>whose presence in the aerolite proves that the candent
>state of the surface did not last a long time and that
>the heat did not penetrate to the interior of the
>mass, and this concords with the low conductivity of
>its composition, and finally it contained cesium and
>some alkaline silicates that we are not familiar with.
>
>At seven rods we have found ophite; at 15, granite.
>The stone was very hard and our boring progressed very
>slowly.
>
>******************************************************
>
>=====
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Received on Tue 21 Sep 2004 10:38:08 AM PDT