Science and WeatherFarmer’s ‘ham press’ turns out to be a $5-million iron meteorite
Okay, it's time for everyone to check all the rocks they've ever collected.
A farmer in Spain just found out that lump of metal he's been using as a ham press for the past 30 years is actually an iron meteorite worth over $5-million!
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The original sources for this are in Spanish, but according to the UK Daily Mail:
Faustino Asensio Lopez found the 100kg rock, which measures just 45x31x20 cm, as he was tending to livestock with his father in a field near Ciudad Real in 1980.
Believing it to be military scrap from the country's civil war, it sat on his patio for more than three decades — its weight used by family members to cure meat.
It was only in 2011 when Lopez saw a TV report on meteorite sightings over Spain that he got in touch with geologist Juan Carlos Gutierrez Marco.
Based on a rough translation of the original source, and a bit of sleuthing about meteorite types, tests conducted on slices of the meteorite apparently confirmed that it was an octahedrite iron IAB meteorite. The 'octahedrite' part is the meteorite's structural classification, based on the crystal structure seen inside. The 'IAB' (that's roman numeral I, with the subclass AB) is the chemical classification, based on nickel content, and the proportions of trace elements found inside the meteorite.
These iron meteorites are thought to have come from the cores of planetesimals — small planet-like bodies that formed in the early solar system, but didn't survive to become full-fledged planets (or even dwarf planets).
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Lopez and his family are apparently taking some time to decide if they want to sell their prize. While they do that, I'll be off checking through my rock collection.
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