[meteorite-list] Finding fossil Meteorites

From: MEM <mstreman53_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2010 15:03:26 -0700 (PDT)
Message-ID: <483873.57718.qm_at_web55203.mail.re4.yahoo.com>

Yes I for one

I have four "candidates" from the Eastern Pennsylvania Anthracite Field. They
all were found in overburden/coal piles and not totally in situ per se. They
pass muster under field identification but haven't been studied.

One is water mellonshapped approx 18 x 10 inch.( looks a lot like Peekskill was
shapped) It had what appeared to be a perfect chondrule fall out as I was
wrapping it up. It has a high percentage of pyrite which is not unknown in the
coal beds but rarely in such a huge nodule. Iron sulfide is consistent with a
reduction of both metallic and non-metallic iron. The apparent chondrule was
unique to what I have ever found in coal measures.

Another one is crescent shaped of a classic iron fragmentation shape --which is
unlike typical water-worn rocks found in coal measures. It is also coated with
Iron Carbonate -siderite which is another by-product mineral I would expect from
an iron meteorite buried 8 miles in a reducing environment. This came from a
coal pile which was mined over 100 years ago. Both are heavier than normal. I
haven't had them cut. Right now I can not rule these out as fossil meteorites.

Yet another was semi-in situ: a block of shale in which a foreign stone. The
stone had distorted several inches of shale, bending and compressing the strata
ahead of it; showing non-stratified infilling behind its apparent path. This
suggest insertion by force and Carboniferous cock roaches, 3 ft long dragon
flies and 30 ft long salamanders are not believed to have been able-- nor
motivated to chuck rocks into oozey muddy bottoms.

 I found a boulder of sandstone with fossil water ripple marks and just below
the surface of the ripples were several cavities consistent with meteorite
shapes about the size of walnuts. They were hollow but each was coated with a
thin limonite/hematite layer. I was only able to get photos. The boulder was
buried while I was seeking permission to recover it. If these were say, fish
coprolites, washed onto a beach, one would expect them to be on the surface and
not embedded various depths below the surface. This could be a biological but
also can't be ruled out as a meteorite event.

None have been submitted for formal study. I haven't been in a hurry--after all
they've been waiting 300my what is a few more years? They were going to Penn
State but they unplugged/ defunded their fossil meteorite exploration program
rather abruptly. Are there any researchers on the list now working on fossil
meteorites?

 Regards,

Elton

----- Original Message ----
> From: Count Deiro <countdeiro at earthlink.net>

> By the way...have you, or any others on List, found a fossil meteorite in
>situ?
>
> Best regards,

> Count Deiro
> IMCA 3536
Received on Mon 25 Oct 2010 06:03:26 PM PDT