[meteorite-list] Nickel tests

From: Michael Murray <mmurray_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu, 24 Sep 2009 13:35:48 -0600
Message-ID: <E657C45E-98FE-475E-99C8-B3AE9D3E8501_at_montrose.net>

I'm calling it native iron because that is what the tests showed. It
is possible and the person making the analysis also stated that it
could be meteoritic material. I don't know. It is some some pieces
of metal from about 3/16" to 3/4" at the widest. The pieces are
strongly susceptible to a magnets attraction, more so even than
magnetite . It is very hard and chrome looking metal. It just
doesn't look like an iron meteorite, at least not to me. Close
though. So anyway, that is what it is. No sign of nickel though.
All of the pieces were found here in southwest Colorado. If
terrestrial, it may be that I can find it here because we have some
old calderas in this area. Just a guess.

Mike


On Sep 23, 2009, at 9:56 PM, <cdtucson at cox.net> <cdtucson at cox.net>
wrote:

> Michael,
> By the way my posts take several hours to post to the list. I don't
> know why.
> You are very interesting. What do you mean by Native Iron vs.
> meteorite iron? To me all iron is either man made or meteorite so,
> what is native? Do you mean Josephineite or what? I hunt old ranches
> in AZ where it has an old history including lots of old tools made
> by whomever, Indians, Spaniards, conquistadors, miners, etc. I think
> some of these metal objects are made from meteorite material. maybe
> even the Tucson irons?
> Your test helps me to determine that. They do not magnetize. So,
> maybe they are meteorite material.
> The allergy test in my experience is far to sensitive. It detects
> even the smallest trace amounts of Nickel. Your test seems much
> better for a preliminary test to choose which pile things go to.
> Thanks again. I am very thankful to all who post on this list.
> Your's are great to see and very helpful. please tell more about
> these special features. Carl
>
> --
> Carl or Debbie Esparza
> Meteoritemax
>
>
> ---- Michael Murray <mmurray at montrose.net> wrote:
>> Glad you found it useful. I wanted to share too that native iron
>> reacts real close to the same as a meteorite will to the magnetism.
>> So you might want to watch for that. I sent one of about 20 some
>> pieces of native iron I have to AZ to a lab and they confirmed that
>> that is what it is. I have learned to tell the difference in the two
>> mainly by sight. Native iron is rougher looking than an iron
>> meteorite and some of the pieces I have have a strange mineral habit
>> clearly visible on the surface. BTW, these pieces of native iron do
>> not test positive for nickel or at least not for me here with the
>> alertest Ni test or at the lab in AZ. I tried to send some to UCLA
>> for a nickel test but they were a little too busy. I can't blame
>> them
>> though for not wanting to take time away from more important things
>> to
>> test my little chunk.
>>
>> Best of luck finding those iron meteorites.
>>
>> Mike in CO
>>
>> On Sep 23, 2009, at 8:31 PM, <cdtucson at cox.net> wrote:
>>
>>> Michael,
>>> I would first of all like to thank you for this great information.
>>> Secondly , I would like to tell you that hopefully your test is
>>> definitive. As evidence that it is. I just tried to magnetize a
>>> bunch of small CD's and Odessa's that I have and none of them became
>>> magnetized. This proves you are correct at least for the ones I
>>> tried. In addition I also tried to magnetize a couple of prospects
>>> that I have and they too did not become magnetized and yet other
>>> pieces of found metal that's clearly not meteorite material did
>>> become magnetized. You are quite the genius and thank you so very
>>> much for sharing. Thank you again and again. Carl
>>> PS they claim if results can be replicated that theory becomes fact?
>>> I hope this is now a fact because a few found irons might just get
>>> added to the "it's a keeper for more testing pile."
>>> --
>>> Carl or Debbie Esparza
>>> Meteoritemax
>>>
>>>
>>> ---- Michael Murray <mmurray at montrose.net> wrote:
>>>> For what they are worth, here are a couple suggestions...
>>>> If you place the suspect iron on a strong magnet, then remove the
>>>> magnet, the suspect iron should not retain magnetism (if it's a
>>>> meteorite) but should to some extent if man-made iron. Kind of like
>>>> magnetizing the tip of a screwdriver. You can test the once
>>>> magnetized suspect iron to see if it will attract fine particles of
>>>> magnetite, Not very scientific I know but it is a good
>>>> indicator I
>>>> think.
>>>>
>>>> Another thing you can try if the suspect iron is not very big is to
>>>> place it on a strong magnet (super magnet if you have one) and if
>>>> the
>>>> iron piece wants to orient itself up on one of it's ends on the
>>>> magnet, I would rule out meteorite. If your suspect iron is large,
>>>> you'd probably have to remove a small piece of it to do this test.
>>>> If
>>>> the small piece lays down on any of it's sides on the magnet and
>>>> doesn't want to orient itself, I'd put it in my 'it's a keeper for
>>>> more testing' pile.
>>>>
>>>> I bought a couple nickel test kits. I have tried to be as
>>>> careful as
>>>> possible to do a clean uncontaminated test on several suspect
>>>> irons.
>>>> After doing quite a few, I still don't trust the results. It's not
>>>> that I don't get positives, I do. It's that I've learned not trust
>>>> the positive tests all that much. If I find a big enough suspect
>>>> iron
>>>> someday with enough other indicators that it could be a meteorite
>>>> then
>>>> I will let a lab do the testing so I can rest assured the results
>>>> are
>>>> going to be more trustworthy than mine. Meanwhile, my 'it's a
>>>> keeper
>>>> for more testing' pile continues to grow.
>>>>
>>>> Mike in CO
>>>>
>>>> On Sep 23, 2009, at 12:27 PM, Mike Hankey wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> I've done some nickel tests on some of the slag/meteor wrongs we
>>>>> have found.
>>>>>
>>>>> It tests positive for nickel.
>>>>>
>>>>> Does this sound normal?
>>>>>
>>>>> So I guess the only way to confirm slag (if you can't do it
>>>>> visually)
>>>>> is to cut it open and if there are holes / bubbles then it is
>>>>> slag. Or
>>>>> if the slice doesn't look like a meteorite slice it is slag.
>>>>>
>>>>> For the record, I am personally looking for west like fusion
>>>>> crusted
>>>>> stones and this is what I am training people to look for. At the
>>>>> same
>>>>> time when I get reports about weird rocks I have to follow up and
>>>>> take
>>>>> a look. Not all slag looks the same, there are a lot of different
>>>>> types. I'm getting pretty good at identifying / ruling things out,
>>>>> but
>>>>> the nickel test threw me for a loop.
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>>>>
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Received on Thu 24 Sep 2009 03:35:48 PM PDT