What's My Rock? #12 - a rock identification show

[@icelawn]

Sure is nice to have a “rational” guest who accepts the science, (especially for meteorwrongs) and for you to promote it as a “family heirloom/human interest”, which is creates its own kind of significance.

[@Missouri-rockhound]

You remember that young lady that kept insisting that her rock was full of diamonds, and denied each and everything that the good doctor said? Can you imagine what she says to her boyfriend? "No, I do not drive a Yugo! My car has been in the shop for a long time because ... SHUT UP! It is so a Tesla. It only looks like a Yugo!" Although Tesla's do resemble Yugo's in that that their times in shops are eerily close in resemblance ...

[@OhioEddieBlack]

It's no surprise that 10K people have already watched this in just the four days since it was posted. Please keep making these - they are fascinating and edifying.

[@chinupduck4849]

I feel for that guy. Missed opportunity to convince him it wasnt a meteorite and keep his grandmothers rock in one peice. You could see how disappointed he was to have done that. When people pick one up and pass it down, it's never "just a rock."

[@earlaker]

I was watching this installment and had to pause it at 17:30 when my wife called me to the living room to watch the ball drop in Times Square, lol. Happy New Year, everyone! Keep up the great work, guys!

[@ConsciousConversations]

Happy new Year!

[@mrimc]

Love what you do Dr. Abstract. You Rock!

[@tectonic_city]

thanks!

[@adoniswalk]

What a great show! My interest in geology has piqued in the last year. I now have a vast collection of things, with each having a "story" to tell (what and why it exists). Thank you for sharing. Folks like you create the bridge of knowledge. 😊

[@JimGallt]

We get a lot of hematite/jasper rocks on the beaches of Lakes Michigan and Superior. Much of it is oolitic. I couldn’t tell if this sample was oolitic or not. Locally, this hematite/jasper is called “jaspilite.”

[@Unk13Dave]

so cool to see a new video pop up. I was sad when I got to 11 last week and there were no more. TY for doing what you do!

[@tectonic_city]

thanks for watching, plenty more on the way, one day hopefully I'll be able to hire an editor and that will speed things up (I am slow)

[@Unk13Dave]

@@tectonic_city my son edits videos he's gonna be doing the editing for our channel once we get enough content.

[@allisonjames2923]

So glad you just cut a small slice & kept the main “face”. Very interesting thank you 😊

[@CrocoArt]

Industrial slag or iron ore smelting by-product. When iron is smelted from iron ore, it often contains significant amounts of silicon. The silicon comes from impurities in the ore or is introduced in the smelting process to remove oxygen. The molten slag that results is usually an iron-silicon mix.

[@HoboMinerals]

I love these videos!! Thanks for making them

[@Rygar777_]

Thank you for what you do. ❤

[@michellemevans3123]

Its Michigan Iron Jasper

[@hoffmandarren]

I love your show. Great work guys. I wish I had an interesting rock of unknown composition. Unfortunately I live in Bend Oregon and don’t come across anything that not volcanic or a hydrothermal kind of deposit. Seems like slag and other industrial stuff is what confuses most us non geologists. I think there could also be some interesting ‘how was this rock formed’ stories. Example being I have a piece of Jasper that I found that is so weird I just can’t understand how it formed. It’s also totally different from any other JasperI have found before. I generally get how it forms, but all the amazing variety, that’s what’s hard to understand.

[@adoniswalk]

I know what you mean. I've spent the last 6 months learning about how the continents formed and how they drifted, and the abundant minerals in the Earth's crust. I thought it was all solved to learn there only three primary rocks. The tricky part for me is the blended varieties. So I'll call a combo rock a conglomerate in my book.

[@tectonic_city]

although we understand the basic contours of big-picture plate tectonic theory, geologists are still trying to understand the details, and studying rock formation process remains an area of active research with many unknowns

[@michellemevans3123]

Michigan Iron Mountain piece. Iron/Jasper.

[@ConsciousConversations]

1:50 aww!! I have a few ( my favorite people of course) who have heirloom rocks! And of course we all have created children who also have favorite family rocks and personal finds.. back in the early 1900’s a friend of mine’s dad actually shipped a box of rocks to Alaska when they moved there from Illinois! It just is so relatable!

[@tmjmccormack]

Cool! I think it’s just another chapter for the rock. Nice guy, great episode.

[@madmaddie4956]

Love your sharing of knowledge. When you said “spongy texture”, I wondered How do you know it’s not one of those rocks which is in the process of Pseudomorphing? Ie one mineral replacing another, like the silica falling into crack of the iron or vice versa? PS I think it’s really cute that everyone thinks they found a meteorite. I wished I lived in San Bernardino because I would be at your office every week asking “What did I find??”. Maybe you can have some shows of what you have found and share how you figured out what it was by analysis, location discussion, relationship to other rocks you found in that area, etc. One You Tube channel called TopherSpin is great about features in a meteorite-for those so inclined. Hope you keep making shows, I love them. And some day I will be at your door with my mystery finds!

[@tectonic_city]

you're welcome on the show anytime

[@ermichalski]

Make more videos, please.

[@tectonic_city]

plenty more on the way, thanks for watching

[@JeanineNielson]

By product of copper smelting. Kennett Copper is in New Mexico

[@tectonic_city]

except I would have expected a significant amount of copper, but there isn't any

[@mr.goodfootHifiVideoEye.]

It would be great to know if my 89 gram iron Ataxite meteorite is just that . We could cut it in half and see if its Gold inside . I got this from my grandpa s desk 50 years ago .

[@tectonic_city]

sounds great, you're welcome on the show anytime

[@meilmes]

Love your show. Greetings from Germany!

[@tectonic_city]

Vielen Dank!

[@BrettVarve]

The fact that it had 225 ppm arsenic is interesting. Quite a few other metals present as well. Some sort of smelting byproduct sounds most reasonable.

[@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672]

Every one of these I've watched is meteorite vs slag. The host may be right on every one, for many reasons, but the world's major iron deposits are iron and silicon. Also, iron deposits in multiple environments, so I'm not sure every piece of iron with no nickel is slag. Glad he explained a little more at the end of this one.

[@tectonic_city]

I agree that slag is probably not the only answer, which is why I prefer the term "industrial byproduct". this communicates that it isn't natural while remaining noncommittal on the true origin.

[@earthlingjohn]

Appears to me that it has something similar to a quartz vein through the main body of the rock

[@mistigrzybowski1888]

When i looked up this xrf information it looks like it's much newer than assumed? Can you give us more info on this please.

[@mistigrzybowski1888]

i found something very much like this, looked brown but close look it was red crystal by the coast north east usa and it has to be natural. Ruby red quarts or carbanado diamond or meteorite possibly a huge garnet were the closest answers i got. I guarantee mine is natural unless it was made in ancient times. Oh and mine had a quarts band or something also .

[@bethsands7665]

Cool rock-hunting show that I just subscribed to. How would I get my heavy rock with nickel and pyrite identified ? I found my rock in Livermore, Ca. and would love an identification. It is not magnetic .

[@tectonic_city]

next time you're in Southern California, you're welcome on the show.

[@solanaceae2069]

If it wasn't magnetic, it'd look a little like red hematite ( Iron(III) oxide ).

[@OhioEddieBlack]

You may eventually have to make a sub-channel called Not Every Rock Is a Meteorite, People

[@MrBendylaw]

So it was from New Mexico, somewhere near a military base? Didja put a Geiger counter to it?

[@adoniswalk]

The machine would have detected it and shown a letter "U".

[@tectonic_city]

I wish I had, didn't get the radiation detector until after this episode filmed. but I doubt it was radioactive, seemed like standard slag or industrial stuff

[@kathrynralli4557]

It's an organ. Body part.

[@MrBendylaw]

Yeah, seems unlikely...but you might want to mask and glove up if you're going to be cutting mystery rocks on a regular basis, just the same. Edit: I'm more of a woodworker than a lapidary enthusiast, but consequences are a thing.

[@jand8509]

I think I might have Arsenopyrite on in the quarts vein I found. Is there anywhere I can send pictures to? I’m just trying not to get arsenic poison and prevent anyone else from getting it.

[@tectonic_city]

sorry I don't I.D. materials via pictures but you're welcome on the show anytime :)

[@mistigrzybowski1888]

What does the machine say if you scan a human?

[@leacipurr]

Thanks for doing what you're doing. Wish there were more people willing to let randos come in with their rocks. I have been pondering calling the local University and seeing if any geology student would let me rent them for an hour or two to look at my rocks, tell me what they are, then hit the beach and tell me what everything there is. 😂

[@diann546]

Check out Michigan Rocks. He has at least a couple videos with geologists. On the beach and also going over fossils at a university.

[@ericchristiansen4823]

Looks like it could be an iron concretion.

[@lylelay]

Looks very much like some sort of an iron concretion to me. It definitely doesn't look like any sort of slag that I've seen. Slag tends to be jagged. It hasn't been around long enough to get rounded like that. You don't usually see veins Like the white material In slag. And when cut you often see flow Lines. All that being said with it not in hand it's very difficult to tell.

[@tectonic_city]

possible, but I expect concretions to have some sort of radial or concentric structure and this one doesn't have that

[@lylelay]

@@tectonic_city lake Michigan "lightning stones" which are septarian nodules can look very similar to the stone you've got there.

[@lylelay]

Oops, especially when they don't have a lot of veins in them. Though admittedly they are not nearly as iron heavy is what you got there. I've seen a number of other sedimentary "nodules" that don't show a whole lot of structure.

[@mikereilly7629]

Surprised more people don't bring oddly shaped rocks to you that were modified by ancient people....I have some artifacts that are not easily classified

[@tectonic_city]

I'd need to have an archaeologist co-host on the show then :)

[@mistigrzybowski1888]

Fe3Al2(SiO4)3 almandine

[@josephgrasser3746]

Is "industrial product" a euphemism for slag?

[@tectonic_city]

not all industrial products are slags, so I prefer to use that term to provide what in my opinion is the correct level of uncertainty

[@charlottedean2205]

Iron and silicon def suggest slag

[@edwardguzik3081]

Does a condrite metorite have nickel in it?

[@Tristanius]

I would think it has at least some, but also I think it wouldn't have so much Iron in it. Condrites usually represent the presumed very primitive earth/ the space dust of which the earth formed. With that it wouldn't be surprising to also find some Metals that make Up the core of earth

[@tectonic_city]

many chondrites have metal grains in them and they will always have at least a few percent nickel.

[@davenelson413]

well from the initial results, it isnt an iron meteorite --- not even close. An iron meteorite would have 85 - 95% iron, 5 - 10% nickel. Then the cut confirmed it wasnt an iron meteorite

[@TweenieDevil]

Though it's not a meteorite, it isn't slag either. Here is what the rockdoc would say: "Though the material is not a meteorite, it is also likely not an industrial product either. Calcium concentrations are too low for the composition of slag and magnesium is too high. The percentage of iron and silicon suggests it's a natural iron silicate and the mineral laihunite, likely derived from the oxidation of olivine. Oxidation also explains the internal porosity. “

[@professorwhoopee]

Silicon is a metal? I done learn stuff

[@tectonic_city]

technically silicon is an element. it can be metallic (we still call it silicon) or an oxide such as SiO2 or may be present many other compounds (SiF4 is a gas, e.g.)

[@Saritabanana]

Yay Unions!! My husband is a UPS retired Teamster. I don’t know anyone that has better insurance coverage than we are lucky enough to have. Can I mail you a rock?

[@maryross8408]

I have some tools that look very old they also resemble from Native Americans but I also have some that I think it come from a time before how do I get some one to identify them I would love to show pictures of them but I don’t know how I would love to share I am from North East Indiana and I would swear these are from different time periods can someone help me with this

[@ronelalmendras3189]

looks like a big almandine garnet

[@mistigrzybowski1888]

Yes exactly it does to me 2

[@tectonic_city]

interesting idea, but not enough aluminum to be predominantly almandine (maybe a trace amount of synthetic garnet, but would need SEM analysis to evaluate)

[@Carmensdaughters1]

Ferrosilicon

[@tectonic_city]

likely

[@stratagemsgemart]

Hi guys, i would love to send u some interesting things from Australia forbyou to identify if your interested.

[@waynefisher7694]

slag

[@kathrynralli4557]

Its an organ, heart, or something, sinew on the outside skin.

[@johnnyappleseed2058]

That rock is one day old coprolite

[@OhioEddieBlack]

gross

[@user-friendlyish]

So basically you don't know and it could be extraterrestrial... because there's just unidentified smelting slag everywhere.

[@BrettVarve]

There is no reason to believe it is extraterrestrial.

[@kathrynralli4557]

Iron =blood.

[@kathrynralli4557]

Rediculouse, its not industrial, its biological.

[@raymorphis5714]

an easier way to check if it had nickle in it is to dip it in ferric acid for 3 to 5 mins

[@tectonic_city]

actually XRF tells you in about 5 seconds

[@raymorphis5714]

@@tectonic_city true enough but what is the cost verse results ? I can make the ferric for 24 dollars and that makes 2 gallons How much does your fancy toy cost ?

[@mrmaestrouk]

Same ingredients as a HEART

[@mrmaestrouk]

It’s a body part. Mudfossils

[@henryhebert701]

It's a rock

[@hamaljay]

Are you sure? If it's slag it's not a rock.

[@henryhebert701]

@hamaljay yep you're right it is slag

[@henryhebert701]

@hamaljay yep you're right it is slag