Rock Found in Field Turns Out to Be 4.6GY Old Meteorite

[Keith_McClary]

TL;DR

Rock Fragment Found in Field Turns Out to Be Ancient 4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

A small fragment of rock found lying in a field in Gloucestershire in the UK may not have looked like much to the casual passerby ...

A small fragment of rock found lying in a field in Gloucestershire in the UK may not have looked like much to the casual passerby ...

I'm curious how this was found, if not by a "casual passerby". Did there happen to be a meteorite expert wandering in the Gloucestershire field?

 

[DaveE]

google search is helpful for questions like this
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchcombe_meteorite

 

[fresh_42]

Summary:: Rock Fragment Found in Field Turns Out to Be Ancient 4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

A small fragment of rock found lying in a field in Gloucestershire in the UK may not have looked like much to the casual passerby ...

Did there happen to be a meteorite expert wandering in the Gloucestershire field?

Let's ask @davenn how he found his!

 

[fresh_42]

And now for something completely different ...

http://www.ehu.eus/sem/seminario_pdf/SeminSEMv10p75-87.pdf
https://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/meteorite-falls/how-to-find-meteorites/

... were just two reliable looking sources about meteorites. I'm not used to looking for geological references. Results get better and better if you are practicing various search keys.

 

[gmax137]

I used to live close to Westfield Mass, known as "Whip City" since the early 1900's when buggy whip manufacture was a large part of its industry. There's still local businesses using the name (e.g., "Whip City Brewing").

Then there's this:

"Meteor at Westfield, MA"

 

[Astronuc]

A lonely meteorite that landed in the Sahara Desert in 2020 is older than Earth. The primeval space rock is about 4.6 billion years old, and is the oldest known example of magma from space.

https://www.livescience.com/meteorite-asteroid-early-solar-system.html

Its age and mineral content hint that the rock originated in our early solar system from the crust of a protoplanet — a large, rocky body in the process of developing into a planet, according to a new study.

The meteorite, called Erg Chech 002 (EC 002), is likely a rare surviving chunk of a lost baby planet that was destroyed or absorbed by bigger rocky planets during our solar system's formation.

Pieces of EC 002 were found in Adrar, Algeria, in May 2020, and the fragments were "relatively coarse grained, tan and beige," sporadically studded with crystals that were "larger green, yellow-green and less commonly yellow-brown," according to a description by the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).

EC 002 is an achondrite, a type of meteorite that comes from a parent body with a distinct crust and core, and lacks round mineral grains called chondrules, according to the Center for Meteorite Studies at Arizona State University.

https://www.lpi.usra.edu/meteor/metbull.php?code=72475

Radioactive versions, or isotopes, of aluminum and magnesium indicated that the meteorite's parent was an ancient body dating to 4.566 billion years ago, and EC 002's chemical composition revealed that it emerged from a partly-melted magma reservoir in the parent body's crust. Most rocky meteorites come from sources with basaltic crusts — rapidly cooled lava that is rich in iron and magnesium — but EC 002's composition showed that its parent's crust was made of andesite, which is rich in silica.

 

[Astronuc]

Another, but recent, story on Erg Chech 002 meteorite.

https://www.space.com/meteorite-4-billion-years-early-solar-system

Understanding how Aluminum-26 was distributed as the planets were forming around 4.6 billion years ago is thus important to building a picture of how the rocky inner planets of the solar system evolved. Additionally, because Aluminum-26 decays to Magnesium-26, a stable form of Magnesium, it can be used as a dating system for space rocks.

To determine the age of Erg Chech 002 as 4.566 billion years old, the team measured the amounts of lead isotopes within it, but this, ironically, could have provided scientists with a way of improving another dating strategy for similar meteorites.

 

[davenn]

Another, but recent, story on Erg Chech 002 meteorite.

uh huh, I have a couple of bits of that one. Well known for its long green crystals
Pyroxene, from memory
here's one of them .....

 

[davenn]

TL;DR Summary: Rock Fragment Found in Field Turns Out to Be Ancient 4.6-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite

A small fragment of rock found lying in a field in Gloucestershire in the UK may not have looked like much to the casual passerby ...

I'm curious how this was found, if not by a "casual passerby". Did there happen to be a meteorite expert wandering in the Gloucestershire field?

This is quite misleading (the newspaper headlines) as it wasn't a random find
This meteorite was an observed fall so there were many people out looking for fragments of the meteorite on the ground

Cant remember if I have a bit of that one. I did see it for sale when I was at the recent Tucson, AZ show, quite expensive even for small bits

cheers
Dave