Identifying meteorites in the field is key to being a successful meteorite hunter. You can’t just search the web for a photo if you have no internet in the field. So being able to identify a meteorite when you spot it is by far the biggest trick in the book. It takes time to train your eye to see them, and though I’ve found hundreds, most were found with a metal detector. Yes you are most likely going to go buy a metal detector later, but you don’t really need one on a fresh meteorite fall because most meteorites are laying on the surface and relatively easy to spot if you look in the right place. Finding that spot is a subject for another article.

A meteorite when it enters our atmosphere is going fast. Very fast, up to 26,000MPH or more. The air pressure increases the deeper into the atmosphere the meteoroid falls. The air acts as a braking mechanism and slows the speed. In addition, the reason a “meteor” seems to be a fireball is because of the tremendous pressure in front of the stone, the air superheats and causes the outer surface of the stone to heat up and melt to a depth of a few millimeters… Once it reaches a certain point in the atmosphere it will slow until it reaches terminal velocity. Terminal velocity is no more than a couple few hundred miles an hour! This is why a meteor fireball appears to break up, fragment and disappear. It reaches a point in the atmosphere where it almost stops completely. This speed is relative to it’s initial cosmic velocity. It’s kind of like hitting a brick wall.

Why am I telling you this? Because this is the most important part to know if you are going to locate a new fall. After this point (called the retardation point) the meteoroid is traveling in dark flight and much more slowly. A meteor breaks up during the terminal burst. It will fragment and fall only a couple hundred miles per hour.

The reason you need to know this is simple. Meteorites when they fall, will hit the ground and bounce, break apart, or if they land in soft soil they will sink rather deeply into the earth. Depending on the velocity and mass this will determine the depth the stone sinks and/or damage to a stone. Many stones land unharmed gently down to Earth. So, you may be looking for fragments or whole stones.

186.3g Unclassified NWA Meteorite

Fusion Crust
Freshly fallen meteorites are black on the outside and typically lighter colored on the inside. The inside usually will appear to be the color of concrete or ever whiter… The exterior will look very similar to charcoal, and may exhibit flow lines or melt lines where the outer surface is melted and forms small lines flowing back over the trailing edge of the stone. Though the “melted look” is rather rare. Mostly they look like a hunk of charcoal, with smooth outer surfaces pock marked with regmaglypts.

Regmaglypts
These small indentations are more affectionately called thumbprints in the meteorite world. They consist of dents, scoops, and or depressions and ridges on the surface of the stone and are a good clue to use to tell if a stone is a meteorite.

Density
Meteorites are heavier than Earth rocks of the same size, and usually much more dense.

Magnetism
Most stone meteorites also have iron in them which makes them attracted to a magnet. (make yourself a magnet stick. Get an old golf club and cut the head off. Then attach a strong neodymium rare earth magnet to it with JB weld, or the liquid plastic in a tube, or even duct tape.) Then you have a perfect way to recover the stones without bending over and picking up every suspect rock you find! Trust me on that, your back will thank you for it…

If you find a stone that matches the description above you “might” just have a meteorite. I say might because there are other field, visual, and chemical tests that need to be done.

Visual Examination
You can use a 10X jewelers loupe to examine the stone under magnification in the field to look for chondrules which are tiny spherical inclusions in the stone. Also look for iron flecking and larger iron inclusions. Iron will usually be visible and sparkle under light and through the fusion crust in places on the surface of the stone. If the inside of the stone is visible that’s even better because  it will allow you to examine the interior structure.

Chemical Tests
And finally the nickel test. No, not the nickel in your pocket, but the metal nickel. Meteorites contain more nickel metal than any other stone on Earth. Given this fact, testing for nickel in a suspected meteorite is another step in the identification process. There are off the shelf nickel test kits you can use to test the stone for the presence of nickel.

Lab Tests
If your stone passes all these tests, there’s a very good chance that it’s a meteorite. Knowing that, it’s always a good idea to send a small sample to a lab for testing just to be sure. Many universities and colleges across the United States have geology departments, astronomy departments, astrophysics departments etc. and have the labs and equipment necessary to test your suspect stone to see if you do in fact have a meteorite.

Classification
Once you determine that your stone is in fact a meteorite, it should be classified. This is when you send a small representative sample to a lab and they test the stone chemically and do mineralogical tests to determine type and class. Once this process is done, the information is sent to the Meteoritical Society for review and a name is chosen. Usually a meteorite is named by choosing the nearest major landmark, city, or place name. Coordinates and details of the classification are then recorded and published in the Meteoritical Bulletin and the meteorite is added to the database of over 36,000 meteorites worldwide.

Value
A meteorite is worth what someone will pay for it. The value to science is priceless, but there’s always a commercial price on something. Meteorites are rare but their commercial value varies considerably. Even though some meteorites are very rare, there are differences and levels of rarity within certain classes and types of meteorites. It all depends on whether a particular meteorite is chondrite, or an achondrite, iron or stony iron, lunar or martian meteorite. It also depends on the total known weight or TKW of any given meteorite. When a meteorite falls, it usually breaks apart into many pieces. Once recovered the total known weight is recorded. Depending on how much is available will help determine the value of a particular stone. Basic supply and demand. Business 101 type stuff. Aesthetics are another factor in the value of a meteorite.

If you don’t want to hunt for meteorites you can buy them. Can you own meteorites? Yes, absolutely! And it’s perfectly legal.

Where can you buy meteorites? There are many online meteorite dealers, do a simple search for meteorites for sale on your favorite search engine and you will find thousands of meteorites available for purchase.

Good luck out there and happy hunting!

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