Another report of possible meteorite found

Aug.04 2009

Another report of possible meteorite found

by Mike Hankey, under Mason Dixon Meteor

I got this report from Gary, a Carrol County resident, a few days ago:

“On July 26, 2009 I found an unusual rock lying on top of some mulch in my parent’s yard in north-central Maryland (Carroll County). It is totally unlike anything in the area. It looks like a meteorite to me. It is gray, with irregular shape, indentations which appear to have possibly been made by hot gas, and a few small rusty spots. The rock is about 2 inches wide. It is slightly attracted to a strong magnet. No one in the family had put the rock where it was found. No digging has occurred recently around where it was found. The region where this rock was found would be somewhat in line with your projected path of the recent meteor that may have landed near the Susquehanna River.”

I asked Gary to send me some pictures. Here they are:

My first thoughts are this is not a meteorite because:

Meteorites are usually black with a fusion crust
Carrol County is pretty far from the trajectory we are currently working with

I’m not a meteorite expert, so I have sent the pictures out to the meteorite community to see what they think. Comments are much appreciated.

:Meteor Update

3 Comments for this entry

John Divelbiss
August 4th, 2009 on 3:15 pm
Mike,

Looks like an old piece of furnace slag. Smelting operations were common all over this part of the country in the last 300 years. Iron ore operations and associated heavy minerals were the target in most cases.

It does NOT look like a piece from a new meteorite fall.

John – from PA
Gary Parks
August 4th, 2009 on 5:48 pm
For what it’s worth, the mulch the rock was lying on was put down in mid-May 2009, so the rock has somehow appeared on its own since then.
While I cannot rule out the slag theory, the nearest iron furnace was at least five miles away and I have never seen similar material in the area it was found.
Norm Wiliams
August 7th, 2009 on 1:57 pm
I’ve seen pictures of highly weathered LL6 hypersthene meteorites that look similar. Meteorabs will verify any rock for $15.00 and send you a report within 2 weeks.Remember finding older meteorites in a place like PA they will be quite weathered. This meteorite is not rich with black fusion crust.I live in PA and slag is everywhere!! Good luck Mike and thanks for keeping me on the edge of my seat. Norm/seapox (youtube)