Meteor-wrongs

Rocks that look like meteorites, but are NOT!

by Robert Verish

Gallery of Meteor-wrongs:
the following images were all taken by a person who was trying to get their (similar-looking) specimens identified.
You can "Click" on the images to get a larger view.
They are all "slag" meteor-wrongs.

Man-made Material - - "Slag"

courtesy of ____
Meteor-wrong - - various forms of "slag" - - (man-made)
Below are various close-up images of the above specimens:

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of Ms. courtesy of Ms.
Meteor-wrong - - probably a variety of "slag" - - (man-made)

courtesy of E. Baye
Meteor-wrong - - probably another variety of "slag" - - (man-made)
courtesy of E. Baye courtesy of E. Baye courtesy of E. Baye

courtesy of E. Baye
Meteor-wrong - - probably another variety of "slag" - - (man-made)
courtesy of E. Baye courtesy of E. Baye courtesy of E. Baye

This latest influx of meteor-wrong images made it even more apparent to me that there were many similarities among them. I noticed that most meteor-wrongs can fit into 3 broad categories:

Artifact iron - - (I've broadened this term to include any malleable iron or alloy that isn't an iron meteorite.)
Iron oxide - - (This is a broad grouping that includes hematite and magnetite, as well as any basalt or jasper that attracts a magnet. Personally, I prefer to exclude any "iron shale" that can be proven that it originated from an iron meteorite.)
Slag - - (I've broadened this term to include any material that is man-made, or the residue from a manufacturing process, such as, any ore that is only partially melted.)

Since two out of the three above categories are outside the domain of geological sciences, I now refer people to metallurgists. Not only can they analyse metal, but they have a familiarity with ores and slag.

courtesy of MCC
Meteor-wrong - - a mixture of hematite/magnetite - - (iron oxide)

References:

Meteor-Wrongs - a "Bob's Findings" article in the July 2014 Meteorite-Times Magazine.

Slag - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

What is Slag? - from wiseGEEK, clear answers for common questions.

Neighborhood Rocks - a kid-friendly webpage that is still informative, and surprisingly accurate, that is titled, "Slag (human-made "lava" rock)".

Ferromanganese - one of Ken Newton's "meteorite-identification.com" very informative webpages.

MeteorWrongs - an extensive "photo gallery" of rocks that people thought were meteorites, part of Randy Korotev's very instructional website.

Ferrochromemanganese - this Cascadia Meteorite Laboratory webpage is on the Portland State University website.

My previous articles can be found *HERE*
For more information, please contact me by email: Bolide*chaser