What the hell is this? Any amateur geologists in the house?

[Slacker]

Found this bizarre rock? Metal blob? Thing earlier today.

It seems to be metallic and non magnetic.
Weight is not unusual for its size, it is a bit heavier than a rock of the same size.

4.5" by 3"
Maybe a pound or a bit less.

Pics

 

[sandorski]

Kinda looks like slag from a smelter.

 

[SKORPI0]

Probably a meteorite..

 

[smackababy]

I recommend you watch the movie Joe Dirt.

 

[ImpulsE69]

Wife said "bronzed poo"..but she's weird.

If it's a meteorite that'd be pretty cool!

 

[lxskllr]

Kinda looks like slag from a smelter.

Looks kind of like glass that gets made by something trains do(brakes?). Maybe they can do that to metallic stuff too. Where did you find it? Cool looking rock.

 

[Slacker]

Smelter slag seems most likely, but the nonmagnetic part is strange.

 

[SKORPI0]

Kinda looks like slag from a smelter.

Smelter slag seems most likely, but the nonmagnetic part is strange.

Tap Slag?

http://www.brislingtonarchaeology.org.uk/museum/view.php?exhibit=110904a1

This dense slag comes from a bloomery furnace used for smelting iron from ore. As the temperature in the charcoal-fuelled furnace rose, the ore would begin to melt, but the first molten material that dribbled to the bottom of the furnace was not the iron itself. This hot liquid was vented – tapped off – in small rivulets and left to cool before being hacked away and discarded.

 

[Slacker]

That sure looks like it, saw other pics of tap slag and some are nearly identical.

 

[Jeff7]

I believe IronWing is a professional geologist. (Even if I'm wrong about that, I'll continue to believe it. )

 

[Hugo Drax]

Check for radioactivity.

 

[IronWing]

Slag.

But I am intrigued by "Looks kind of like glass that gets made by something trains do(brakes?)."

 

[tcsenter]

It does look like petrified scat.

 

[Markbnj]

Interesting. Can you say where in general it was found? We can probably determine whether it is likely to be slag by looking at nearby industries, railroads, etc. I have done a lot of sleuthing out old forge and furnace sites in New Jersey and I have a pretty good sense of where to look for that kind of information.

 

[Slew Foot]

turd fossil

 

[mikeymikec]

I know a thing or two about rocks and that's a rock.

 

[QueBert]

Why do moon rocks taste better than earth rocks?

because they're meteor

 

[lxskllr]

Slag.

But I am intrigued by "Looks kind of like glass that gets made by something trains do(brakes?)."

You've never found obsidian on railroad beds? It might be something its hauling, but I assumed it was crap wedged into the wheels or something, heating up, then falling out. Dunno.

 

[Iron Woode]

it's from a cloaked spaceship.

 

[IronWing]

You've never found obsidian on railroad beds? It might be something its hauling, but I assumed it was crap wedged into the wheels or something, heating up, then falling out. Dunno.

I was just teasing, I liked your phrasing. The obsidian on railroad tracks is usually slag used as track ballast. Clinker (the welded ash from the bottom of the fire box) from the age of coal and steam is also fairly common. There are other cool things that trains make though. Train wheels sometimes peel (and peal) off thin layers of rail on the inside of curves. The thin strips get bunched up in front of a wheel and friction weld themselves together. On railways serving the iron ranges and steel mills or ports it is fairly common to find taconite balls.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I recommend you watch the movie Joe Dirt.

That was my first thought as well.

 

[Markbnj]

You've never found obsidian on railroad beds? It might be something its hauling, but I assumed it was crap wedged into the wheels or something, heating up, then falling out. Dunno.

Find it all the time along old lines, but as Ironwing pointed out it is glassy slag, not obsidian. You can also find a lot of coal along older lines where steamers ran, and firebox slag as well.

 

[Ichinisan]

While walking along railroad tracks as a kid, I've found some stuff that looked like meteors. It looked like they hit the gravel HARD and broke apart.

With a friend, we brought them back. His dad said they weren't meteors and I never saw them again

 

[Red Squirrel]

If I had to guess, probably molten metal that splashed on a rock or multiple rocks, at some point.

 

[JPS35]

5 day old brownie left out to dry; nevertheless, chocolaty, crunchy goodness.