I was going to say that too.. looks like metal.. But if it fell from space it would have left more of a hole in the ground? Unless thats just a tip of a bigger peice in the ground.
"I was going to say that too.. looks like metal.. But if it fell from space it would have left more of a hole in the ground? Unless thats just a tip of a bigger peice in the ground.
"
Well, not necessarily. Most meteorites and meteorite fragments here on Earth are discovered on the surface. Most often, they were buried on impact, but reappeared when erosion exposed them, either wind or water erosion.
I know a place in Baja California where iron meteorite fragments litter the surface of several acres. Since these particular ones are not rare, they're not valuable enough for mass collection and sale, so they're still there, just sitting on the surface of a sandy place.
Pretty easy to explain, really.
It doesn't look like it displaced any of the surface. Perhaps it's been there for a long long time and the surrounding area has been worn down.
It would depend a lot on the weight of the meteorite. A 17 ton iron meteorite landed on a farm in Africa leaving its top surface level with the ground. The farmer sold the meteorite for next to nothing. Smaller meteorites could land just leaving a dent in the ground. These were the source of much of the iron in the bronze age. Bigger meteorites could blow a crater in the ground. Really big meteorites could blow a crater in the ground and totally vaporize themselves.