Green transparent brittle material found in fire ash

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kaelibw
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I came into my engineering class this morning and our teacher showed us this strange material. He got the material from a student who recently went hiking. According to the student, he and his father went into the woods and started a fire in an old metal tire rim. They threw a bunch of old papers and folders on the fire to get it going. When the fire went out, they took a high pressure hose and sprayed the ash away to burn more papers. At the bottom of the ashes they found the mystery material. They had no idea what it was and brought a piece to my teacher to see if he knew what it was. He had no idea.

The material is green in color but transparent like glass. Its brittle but has the feeling of plastic. We heated it up to around 1,770 degrees F but nothing happened.

Does anyone have any idea what we have here?
 

Discussion

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Sounds like a piece of Moldavite to me. That's just a guess. I have some of it and have cut and faceted pieces for jewelry. It is olive-green, transparent, with surfaces that are somewhat streaky-looking.
 
To be honest, I don't think so. for one thing it was found in pennsylvania, and they weren't there before the fire was made.
 
kaelibw said:
To be honest, I don't think so. for one thing it was found in pennsylvania, and they weren't there before the fire was made.
They just didn't see them before the fire.
When the fire went out, they took a high pressure hose and sprayed the ash away to burn more papers. At the bottom of the ashes they found the mystery material.
Disturbing the ground uncovered them.

Olivine is common in Pennsylvania. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivine
 
I'm a bit puzzled about why some people out hiking have access to a water hose under high pressure. Something is not adding up.
 
turbo-1 said:
I'm a bit puzzled about why some people out hiking have access to a water hose under high pressure. Something is not adding up.
:-p I was going to say, they must have hiked 20 feet into their backyard. Carrying folders too!
 
Sorry, hiking was the wrong word. They had a trailer with them. I don't know why they were out there but the thing is they were. As for why they had the folders, what better way to get rid of confidential documents then fire. And why not use it as tinder on a camping trip.


Evo said:
They just didn't see them before the fire. Disturbing the ground uncovered them.

Olivine is common in Pennsylvania. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olivine

That looks almost exactly like what we have. But here's the problem. When the papers were burned, they weren't on the ground. They burned it in a metal tire cap.
 
kaelibw said:
Sorry, hiking was the wrong word. They had a trailer with them. I don't know why they were out there but the thing is they were. As for why they had the folders, what better way to get rid of confidential documents then fire. And why not use it as tinder on a camping trip.


That looks almost exactly like what we have. But here's the problem. When the papers were burned, they weren't on the ground. They burned it in a metal tire cap.
Was it a tire rim or a hubcap? A hubcap seems too small to be burning folders. If it was a tire rim, the rocks could have already been in there with some dirt. In either scenario, the hose could have blown rocks into either of those.

If the rocks aren't natural, there might have been glass or plastic mixed in with what they dumped into the fire.
 
to be honest, the first idea kinda does make sense. I know for a fact that there wasn't any glass or plastic in the fire. plus its almost a perfect match. I think we got a winner. Thanks Evo