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Natural Science Forum / Earth Science / Mineralogy / January 2005What is it?
I found this nice "rock" in my flower bed. I just bought the house so didn't know the person that put it there. Why I became interested in it is that it looked like it had something like gold on one side. When picking it up noticed it to be much heavier than a "normal" rock. Size is 14" high by 8" by 8" and somewhat pointed on one end. Weight is about 45 lbs Surface is smooth and broken surface in places, was part of a larger piece of rock. Possibly some type of ore? Only recently I have been trying to find out its composition, I really didn't think it was solid gold (it would weigh much more), and is mostly black in colour. Just by accident I found it was magnetic, It will attract a fridge magnet quite well, but not a paperclip. Then tried to see if it would conduct electricity, it does quite well ! Resistance is close to zero ohms (less than 5) from any point to point. If it didn't LOOK like rock I would say its mostly Iron or maybe nickel, Is that Possible?? I don't have a photo... > I found this nice "rock" in my flower bed. I just bought the house so didn't > know the person that put it there. Why I became interested in it is that it [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > I don't have a photo... Sounds like pyrite (iron sulfide) to me. Take an edge, and scratch the back of a bathroom or other unglazed ceramic tile across it. If you get a dark gray green streak, it's almost positive it is pyrite. Marcasite, another iron sulfide cousin has a darker streak. You may have some magnetite/hematite (iron oxide) in there too. Magnetite is black/slivery and has a black streak. Hematite is gray-bluish, shiny silvery or red, and has a rust colored streak. Also, Pyrite may form brassy gold cubes with little lines on the faces; marcasite is green-gold, but usually does not have well-developed crystals, but looks more like crumpled gold tinfoil. This story reminds me of that told to me years ago by a Hindu colleague: he told me that in the phone books of major Indian cities, one finds the call numbers of people who can help people bitten by a deadly snake. All one had to do when a bitten person fell in catalepsis was to put the phone to his/her ear, and the "doctor" whispered (or shooted, for that matter) the right words to overcome the first minutes, which are the most dangerous. I wonder sometimes if this could not be applied to mineralogy, in this internet-age!???...even if my story was just good for a gullible European?... Good year to Jo and Charles! J.J. |
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