[Rockhounds] CAN YOU REALLY FIND MICROMETEORITES IN YOUR GUTTER? WELL…

[Tim Fisher]

Agreed, they can indicate the presence of other heavy metals, gold prospectors get excited when they get a pan loaded with black sand. There was even a "gold rush" on the Oregon coast in the 1850s with thousands of people trying to strike it rich panning the sand. Hence the town of Gold Beach on the southern coast. Notice I said trying :)

Tim Fisher
Http://OreRockOn.com 
Email nospam at orerockon.com


-----Original Message-----
From: Rockhounds [mailto:rockhounds-bounces at rockhounds.drizzle.com] On Behalf Of Kreigh Tomaszewski
Sent: Sunday, May 19, 2019 10:26 AM
To: Rockhounds at drizzle.com: A mailing list for rock and gem collectors
Subject: Re: [Rockhounds] CAN YOU REALLY FIND MICROMETEORITES IN YOUR GUTTER? WELL…

The black magnetic flecks in sand are almost always magnetite.

On Sun, May 19, 2019 at 11:03 AM THE HAMMER <hammerron at hotmail.com> wrote:

> When I was a kid, I used to drag a magnet across sand and save the 
> small black bits attracted by the magnet.  I used to call them iron 
> filings, though I do not know if that is the proper term for what I 
> had.  In hindsight, I wonder if any of the material could of been meteoritic?
>
> On 5/16/19 5:59 PM, Kreigh Tomaszewski wrote:
> > I collect meteorites <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuDfZ2Md5x8>, 
> > and have quite a few knocking around my home office. Some are big —
> fist-sized,
> > with one I bring with me when I give talks about impacts so people 
> > can
> hold
> > a piece of an asteroid in their hand — but most are pretty small, 
> > like
> the
> > size of a finger from the last joint to the tip. A few are pebbles 
> > (generally well-known ones with special scientific interest, making
> bigger
> > pieces hard to obtain), and a couple of are sand-grain-sized (one is 
> > from the Moon and the other from Mars).
> >
> > While I don't collect them, there is another kind that’s even smaller:
> > Micrometeorites, usually smaller than a millimeter across, some so 
> > teeny you need a microscope to see them clearly. Bigger ones (say, a 
> > tenth of a millimeter and up) are usually spherical or close to it, 
> > because they
> melt
> > completely as the ram through our atmosphere at hypersonic speeds, 
> > then solidify after they've slowed down to subsonic speeds (in fact 
> > they probably fall the rest of the way extremely slowly due to their size).
> >
> >
> https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/can-you-really-find-micrometeorites-in-y
> our-gutter-well
> > _______________________________________________
> > Rockhounds mailing list
> > Subscription Services:
> http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.d
> rizzle.com
> > List Usage Policy:
> http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml
> _______________________________________________
> Rockhounds mailing list
> Subscription Services:
> http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.d
> rizzle.com
> List Usage Policy:
> http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml
>
_______________________________________________
Rockhounds mailing list
Subscription Services:  http://rockhounds.drizzle.com/mailman/listinfo/rockhounds_rockhounds.drizzle.com
List Usage Policy: http://Tomaszewski.net/Kreigh/Rockhounds/Rockhounds.shtml