Pseudometeorite

I have a piece of what appears to be a meteorite, but is not
extraterrestrial in origin. Is this the correct term? From an observed
fall in the Powers, Oregon area before 1976. Said to contain large
concentration of platinum. My piece is only perhaps 1 inch across. My
ex-brother-in-law has another piece about the size of a pencil
eraser.

Daniel B. Wheeler

On Dec 26, 6:34*am, wrote:
I have a piece of what appears to be a meteorite, but is not
extraterrestrial in origin. Is this the correct term? From an observed
fall in the Powers, Oregon area before 1976. Said to contain large
concentration of platinum. My piece is only perhaps 1 inch across. My
ex-brother-in-law has another piece about the size of a pencil
eraser.

Daniel B. Wheeler


It needs to be sent to a meteoritical lab for testing. See Norton's
"Rocks from space" for a list of labs.

On Dec 26, 6:55 pm, Johnny Borborigmi wrote:
On Dec 26, 6:34 am, wrote:

I have a piece of what appears to be a meteorite, but is not
extraterrestrial in origin. Is this the correct term? From an observed
fall in the Powers, Oregon area before 1976. Said to contain large
concentration of platinum. My piece is only perhaps 1 inch across. My
ex-brother-in-law has another piece about the size of a pencil
eraser.

Daniel B. Wheeler

It needs to be sent to a meteoritical lab for testing. See Norton's
"Rocks from space" for a list of labs.

I will be taking it with me to the Cascade Meteorite Laboratory after
Jan. 1. But I don't have much hope for positive identification.
Platinum is known from meteorites in very low concentrations (indeed,
platinum is nearly 100% extraterrestrial) but not in this
concentration. The presence of other metals suggeests it is a piece of
returned space debris rather than an ancient piece of cosmic interest.

Daniel B. Wheeler

On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 01:12:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:

I will be taking it with me to the Cascade Meteorite Laboratory after
Jan. 1. But I don't have much hope for positive identification.
Platinum is known from meteorites in very low concentrations (indeed,
platinum is nearly 100% extraterrestrial) but not in this
concentration. The presence of other metals suggeests it is a piece of
returned space debris rather than an ancient piece of cosmic interest.

Is this object basically a piece of metal? If so, and it contains
platinum, I'd agree it is very unlikely to be a meteorite. Metal
meteorites are little more than iron and nickel. At best, you'd find
platinum in (very) trace amounts in stony meteorites.

So you could have a piece of space junk (there's a fair bit of it
around), or simply something totally terrestrial with an unusual
history. Do you have any details of the witnessed fall associated with
the object?
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Dec 27, 10:41*am, Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 01:12:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:
I will be taking it with me to the Cascade Meteorite Laboratory after
Jan. 1. But I don't have much hope for positive identification.
Platinum is known from meteorites in very low concentrations (indeed,
platinum is nearly 100% extraterrestrial) but not in this
concentration. The presence of other metals suggeests it is a piece of
returned space debris rather than an ancient piece of cosmic interest.

Is this object basically a piece of metal? If so, and it contains
platinum, I'd agree it is very unlikely to be a meteorite. Metal
meteorites are little more than iron and nickel. At best, you'd find
platinum in (very) trace amounts in stony meteorites.

So you could have a piece of space junk (there's a fair bit of it
around), or simply something totally terrestrial with an unusual
history. Do you have any details of the witnessed fall associated with
the object?
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatoryhttp://www.cloudbait.com


My guess, it's slag.

On Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:32:23 -0800 (PST), Johnny Borborigmi
wrote:

My guess, it's slag.

You don't usually have much platinum is slag.

If this was associated with a witnessed fall, space junk is certainly a
possibility.
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatory
http://www.cloudbait.com

On Dec 27 2008, 7:41 am, Chris L Peterson
wrote:
On Sat, 27 Dec 2008 01:12:41 -0800 (PST), wrote:
I will be taking it with me to the Cascade Meteorite Laboratory after
Jan. 1. But I don't have much hope for positive identification.
Platinum is known from meteorites in very low concentrations (indeed,
platinum is nearly 100% extraterrestrial) but not in this
concentration. The presence of other metals suggeests it is a piece of
returned space debris rather than an ancient piece of cosmic interest.

Is this object basically a piece of metal? If so, and it contains
platinum, I'd agree it is very unlikely to be a meteorite. Metal
meteorites are little more than iron and nickel. At best, you'd find
platinum in (very) trace amounts in stony meteorites.

So you could have a piece of space junk (there's a fair bit of it
around), or simply something totally terrestrial with an unusual
history. Do you have any details of the witnessed fall associated with
the object?
_________________________________________________

Chris L Peterson
Cloudbait Observatoryhttp://www.cloudbait.com

I do, Chris. But I didn't want to post it until after I have a more
accurate analysis of the piece.

I obtained the sample on a trip to Powers, Oregon to visit my sister
Susan Andrea Fox (since divorced and remarried). Her husband was
leaving his job as a teacher in Powers, and I went to help move them.
While there, I heard about a neighbor who claimed to have been nearby
when a rock hit the earth nearby while deer hunting. I asked to see
the stone.

I remember my brother-in-law left the house for a few minutes, then
beckoned me outside. I have forgotten the name of the neighbor but do
remember the stone: an irregular semiglobose object with a jet-black
exterior and pieces of what appeared to be either metal or metallic-
colored swirls in it. The stone weighed at least 80 pounds (my ex-
brother-in-law claims over 120 pounds). One area appeared to be
silvery-colored, and at least one area over 1 inch across had a
distinctive golden-cast to it. As I recall it, the stone was roughly
14inches high and perhaps 12 inches in circumference, and extremely
heavy for the apparent size. It was roughly bullet-shaped or conical,
with a semi-flattened surface on the side furthest away from the
point.

The neighbor told me he had found the stone while hunting deer the
previous fall. He was on a foreted mountainside outside of Powers when
he heard a trmendous fluttering sound, a thunderous impact, and
breaking braches as well as the top of a small tree falling. After
several minutes to recover from his shock, he traced a path of broken
branches and located the rock embedded in shallow soil. He claimed
there was a light snowfall at the time, and that "by the time I
cleaned myself up" and reached the rock, there were flakes of unmelted
snow on the rock.

I was told an assay had been performed on the rock, and that it
supposedly contained iron, copper, gold, platinum and silver.

I asked for a small piece of the stone, then walked back into the
house to help loading and packing. I was later told the rock was taken
back to the nieghbor's nearby garage where it was struck repeadedly
with an 8-lb. splitting maul used for splitting firewood. I would hear
the hammering sounds for several minutes. After about 10-20 minutes,
there was a knock at the door, and I was presented with a small case
such as fishing hooks sometimes come, which had a shard from the
reputed meteorite. The interior of the shard showed metallic granules
or something similar to metal grains in them. The exterior was a thin
reddish-black veneer-like surface, not really smooth, but roughly
flattened/slightly rounded.

I took the piece with me to a Meteor Shower Party in 1999 at Rooster
Rock State Park (Leonids), and showed it to several astronomers
present.

No one was willing to say yea or nay to whether it actually was from a
meteorite, and I could not find anyone who had actually seen a
meteorite at the party.

I contacted my ex-brother-in-law for any information he might be able
to add. He stated he also had a small piece of the alledged meteorite,
about the size of a pencil eraser, which included at least some
visible platinum in it. He suggested that his neighbor of 1976 was
already retired in 1976, and probably had since died. He had no idea
what may have happened to the rock. He did state that the finder had
tried to sell the stone to the Smithsonian Institution for $1 million
based on the alleged platinum content in 1976, Nor did my sister when
I emailed her. However, my ex-brother-in-law did state he thought the
stone had been found near the wreckage of a 1950's or 60's Canadian
Air Force plane. The plane wreckage site is apparently well-known in
the Powers area.

There is another unusual thing to my piece of the stone: it has 3
small (the largest is about 4mm across) areas/nuggets of white
crystaline material embedded in the rock. The largest piece has a dull
overall appearance, but when turned does have tiny shiny facets on
parts of it. I cannot imagine what might have caused such material to
be in the stone. Perhaps residue of ceramics?

Sometime next week I will be taking it to the Cascade Meteorite
Laboratory at Portland State University for closer study.

Daniel B. Wheeler

On Jan 1, 1:26 pm, wrote:
On Dec 27 2008, 7:41 am, Chris L Peterson
wrote:

[snip]

Sometime next week I will be taking it to the Cascade Meteorite
Laboratory at Portland State University for closer study.

DanielB.Wheeler

Still haven't gotten it to Cascade Meteorite Laboratory. Weather has
fouled travel much of anywhere after Dec. 20: first heavy snowfall,
followed by 6-18 inches of rainfall (depending on where in the state
you are) resulting in massive flooding and landslides. Supposedly
another 100-year-storm last witnessed in 1997, but global warming
apparently has some interesting weather in store for us.

Did have a chance yesterday to look for a different 4000 pound
meteorite, but didn't locate it. Narrowed the search area down to
about 180 acres, only to find that about 70 acres are now involved in
a 4-lane freeway plus access construction. Did see (1/4 mile away) a
stone that might be it at the extreme edge of the range mentioned, but
couldn't manage a closer look. Will try again next week.

Daniel B. Wheeler