Photo of a freshly fallen Sikhote Alin iron meteorite. This type of pattern is unique to meteorites. If it is round or spherically shaped then it is probably a cannon ball, ball bearing or milling ball.ģ) Iron meteorites are not grey inside unless they are extremely, extremely weathered, in which case they have little commercial value.Ĥ) When cut, iron meteorites are a shiny silver color inside, just like a piece of freshly cut steel.ĥ) Most Iron Meteorites show a Widmanstatten Pattern when cut and etched. Freshly fallen iron meteorites look similar to the Sikhote Alin meteorite shown below which fell in Eastern Siberia in February, 1947.Ģ) Iron meteorites are never round. Occasionally an iron meteorite will be freshly fallen.
Often, iron meteorites will have indentations or "thumbprints" where parts of the meteorite were ablated during entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Most iron meteorites will be covered in rust and maybe caliche as seen in the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite shown above. So how can we distinguish iron meteorites? Here are a few tips:ġ) Look at some Iron Meteorite Photos. To confuse things further some iron meteorites can be of a shrapnel type and therefore look identical to man-made shrapnel. These include shrapnel from bombs and artillery shells, cannon balls, milling balls (used to grind up ore bearing rock), ball bearings, and various types of industrial slag. There are also plenty of man made objects that are frequently mistaken for iron meteorites. These minerals are especially abundant in the desert Southwest. Magnetite and hematite are two extremely common, naturally occurring iron ores that are often mistaken for iron meteorites.
This means that an attraction to a magnet, on its own, does not mean that a rock is a meteorite. Unfortunately there are many common Earth rocks that also contain iron and are attracted to magnets. This means that most meteorites will be attracted to a strong magnet such as a rare-earth or Neodymium magnet. The vast majority of meteorites contain some iron. This meteorite is a Canyon Diablo IAB Octahedrite Photo of a Typical Iron Meteorite in "as found" condition. Note that this type of chondrite has few metal flecks. Some non-metamorphosed Chondrites show pronounced Chondrules (the small circular objects in the above photo). Note the fresh black fusion crust and light interior. If you are ever lucky enough to find a freshly fallen chondrite this is what it might look like.
Note the dark brown fusion crust and the weathered, lighter colored interior. This is a typical, weathered Ordinary Chondrite. Note the black fusion crust and light interior.Ī freshly fallen Oum Dreyga (Amgala) H3-5 Chondrite showing a light colored matrix filled with iron-nickel flecks. Photo of a freshly fallen Oum Dreyga Chondrite. These flecks attract magnets, and are characteristic of most Chondrite meteorites. When cut, the interior of the Weathered Franconia Chondrite shown above shows numerous iron-nickel metal flecks. This specimen looks very similar to an ordinary rock, but. Here is a highly weathered Franconia H5 Ordinary Chondrite with a rare-earth magnet stuck on to it. Chondrites, by definition, also contain a few to many Chondrules (see examples below). Chondrites typically have some sort of fusion crust on their exterior and often contain tiny metal flecks made of an iron-nickel alloy which will cause magnets to be attracted to them. Some are so weathered that they look like an ordinary terrestrial rock while others are so fresh that they look like a charcoal briquette. Ordinary chondrites come in all shapes and sizes. If you have found a real meteorite, it is most likely an ordinary chondrite. The vast majority of all meteorites are stony meteorites known as ordinary chondrites. There are iron meteorites, stony meteorites (chondrites and achondrites) and meteorites that are a mixture of the two, stony-iron meteorites (pallasites and mesosiderites). Meteorites come in several distinct types. After you have done that, a little background information will be helpful. This will help you get a feel for what real meteorites look like. We recommend looking at a lot of photos of the real meteorites on our website. How can one identify a suspected meteorite? We have developed this webpage as an introduction to meteorite identification. Unfortunately, out of all these suspected meteorites only few were actually real meteorites. Over the years we have received literally hundreds, maybe even thousands of emails from people that were sure that they had found a meteorite. Welcome to Arizona Skies Meteorites ® Meteorite Identification page.
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