I keep finding lumps of metal that resemble iron in fields where I live...Are they from the ground of from the skies?
2006-12-13 01:40:26 · 5 answers · asked by Limeboy 1 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Earth Sciences & Geology
Where do you live and what is the local geology. You could have stumbled upon some money. Get a prospectors licence, they are pretty cheap and stake the land. Then go and find out what it is.
Don't tell anyone until you have a claim, if it already isn't claimed.
As an example some prospectors stumbled on some metallic rocks in Labrador a few years back, staked it and sold the claim for 50 million dollars or about. It is now a mining operation worth billions. That was nickel sulphide. Sound like you might have iron if they are curious globs. But sulphides produce rusty gossans.
Cheers
2006-12-13 03:12:20 · answer #1 · answered by thorian 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Possibly they are just what they look like - iron. The primary iron in the minerals constituting the country rock often leaches out to form iron hydroxides (limonite, goethite). They commonly show a botryoidal form (blister-like) with numerous cavities. You can take a powdered sample to the nearest lab to get it analysed.
2006-12-13 02:51:25 · answer #2 · answered by saudipta c 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Is it metallic? Is it iron ? Put a magnet on it and if sticks come back with another question. A lot of people are going to be very interested.
If not it's flint!
2006-12-13 04:53:14 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It could be chert or flint, especiually if you live in the UK .
Chert itself occurs in a range of colours, from white through various shades of blue, grey and brown, to black. It often occurs as 'massive bedded deposits' - i.e. in continuous beds without form or structure. However, at Portsdown, we see flint in definite layers of nodules, and as fissure fillings.
Thus, 'flint' is a term variously used to refer to:
'Black chert' - which has the smallest crystals and highest proportion of silica
The chert that occurs in chalk and marly limestone, usually in the form of nodules
Some archaeologists even want 'flint' to refer only to the chert that has been made into tools and weapons - but that suggestion is unlikely to gain acceptance in the geological arena
2006-12-13 03:12:48 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
ask someone who can really investigate it....possibly find a way to add a picture to this question of them or something to help us help you
2006-12-13 01:49:16 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋