Meteorite Shale

Paul bristolia at yahoo.com
Wed Nov 28 13:11:20 EST 2007

Ron asked:


>I see some Meteorites for sale, especially the

>Willamette Meteorite, listed as Meteorite Shale.

>What exactly is Meteorite Shale?


It is a term used for a highly weathered (terrestrialized) meteorite.
The use of “shale”, I suspect, came from the tendency of some
highly weathered meteorites, specifically highly oxidized iron
meteorites to develope a layered structure as they weather and
break into subparallel / parallel layers like shale when broken.

The terms “shale balls” and “iron shale” is also used for
some highly weathered meteorites.

When Meteorites Get Old
http://www.meteorite-times.com/Back_Links/2005/January/Meteorite_of_Month.htm

Yours,

Paul H.

Looking for Buried Iron-Shale with a Metal Detector

Paul H bristolia at yahoo.com
Thu May 12 23:43:17 EDT 2005

Dear list members,

If by some chance I had a hunch where I might
find some buried iron-shale, is it possible to find
highly weathered meteorite (iron-shale) with a
metal detector?

If so, what is the approximate relationship between
size of a piece of iron-shale and the maximum depth
at which it can be detected? Also, are there any
special tricks to using a metal detector to look for
buried iron-shale?

Best Regards,

Paul
Baton Rouge, LA