FMF - Friends of Minerals Forum, discussion and message board

[Blackbeard700]

Hi experts.
My son purchased this rock. The salesman said that it was a meteorite. But we are not sure. Can some help us identify it please?

Thanks

[Blackbeard700]

Here is another picture

[Blackbeard700]

And one last one.

[Blackbeard700]

Adding more information. He purchased it from Marrakech in morocco. It does not appear to be magnetic... It is pretty hard and heavy.

[Bob Harman]

The example is absolutely NOT a meteorite! The example looks like botryoidal hematite, sometimes called kidney ore. BOB

[Blackbeard700]

Thanks for the info.

[alfredo]

I agree with Bob. Definitely not a meteorite, and probably mammilary hematite. The only other mineral that can look like that is the "wood tin" variety of cassiterite, but that‘s a lot more rare.

[Stefan Koch]

I would go for goethite instead of hematite due to the brown Color.
A simple streak test would help to confirm brown=most likely goethite vs. Red= hematite.

[Bob Carnein]

I'm with Stefan--it looks like goethite to me. Try scraping it on the ring on the bottom of a teacup or the back of a porcelain tile. If the mark (streak) is yellowish brown, it's goethite; if reddish brown, it's hematite.

[Kevin Schofield]

Hi Blackbeard,

I agree with the analysis goethite/hemAtite streak test that Bob C suggests. Both minerals are iron oxides, and both occur in Morocco, so your son has, if nothing else, got something for his mineral collection that does indeed come from the country he bought it, so it's a good souvenir ;-)

Kevin

[alfredo]

Right, I should have written goethite rather than hematite, or better yet "iron oxides", because color and streak give good guidance but are not really definitive. More than once I‘ve been pretty sure I had goethite based on streak color, but X-ray showed dominantly hematite.