[meteorite-list] What is this?

[E.P. Grondine]

Hi Sterling, 

I like your formation mechanism, but with a sudden
lake drainage and not a rapid melting, but the problem
here is that this stone was found in Moundsville, WVa.
True this is on the Ohio River, but it still seems
unusual, and clearly others thought so.

You have glacial erratics up by Hagerstown, Md, so its
entirely possible that one of the local valleys could
have held a lake which drained suddenly, maybe even
flowing down either Little or Big Grave Creek.

While not a meteorite, perhaps it could have been an
unusual stone collected or used long ago by the people
living there, but its likely we'll never know for
certain.  

good hunting,
Ed

--- "Sterling K. Webb" <sterling_k_webb at sbcglobal.net>
wrote:

> Hi,
> 
>     This is a strictly "two-cents-worth" opinion,
> since I have a stone that is a twin to this one (at
> least, photographically) except that it is only the
> size of a very small ostrich egg: same shape, same
> smooth finish, shiny black and dense, not native
> to this limestone country I live in.
> 
>     It is no mystery. The glaciers brought it here,
> but then finished it off in the immense and violent
> outflow that poured forth when the Wisconsin
> glaciation melted rapidly. The prolate spheroid
> shape is produced by the stone "spinning" around
> its longest axis in the high-speed flow and grinding
> against everything else in the flow. River cobbles
> are just as smooth but irregular, even polygonal.
> 
>     But if you spin it fast enough, as the
> Mississippi
> must have flowed when it carved a 25-mile wide
> channel with 200-foot cliffs on either side, this is
> the shape you get. I found my little one in a gully
> about ten miles down from where the face of the
> glacier that sat on Illinois was. This gully wasn't
> any Mississippi, but I bet it was cut through the
> limestone in an hour or a day, like a Scablands
> channel.
> 
>     Or, maybe, it's a Thunderbird egg...
> 
> 
> Sterling K. Webb
>
------------------------------------------------------------
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "E.P. Grondine" <epgrondine at yahoo.com>
> To: <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Monday, November 27, 2006 11:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] What is this?
> 
> 
> > Hi Jim -
> >
> > The remains at Moundsville are covered in my book
> "Man
> > and Impact in the Americas", and I have visited
> there
> > several times, inclusing tracing the Grave Creek
> trade
> > path. There was extensive Native American
> settlement
> > in the entire area (map page 133 Man and Impact in
> the
> > Americas).
> >
> > Most of the mounds were pretty well leveled by
> 1894,
> > excepting the Main mound.  I have not visited the
> > other mound which you mention still exists.
> >
> > I'm sure that maps from 1894 would show active
> > European cemeteries. These could be compared
> against
> > Schoolcraft's map.
> >
> > The area was also very heavily industrialized by
> 1894,
> > so some industrial object can not be excluded.
> >
> > Perhaps a buisness directory or town directory or
> some
> > such would allow identification of the individual
> in
> > the initials. Check with the genealogical section
> of
> > the library in Moundsville. (PS - They have a copy
> of
> > my book, available for free loan.)
> >
> > As I mentioned before, I've never seen anything
> like
> > it.  The WVA archaeologists someimes meet at the
> > museum at the big mound, so you could stop by
> there
> > and check when they will be meeting. Or you might
> try
> > contacting them through the internet.
> >
> > What material is the object composed of?
> >
> > Ed
> >
> > --- Jim Strope <nwa482 at comcast.net> wrote:
> >
> >> Hi Ed..........
> >>
> >> I don't know how to take the name "grave digger".
>  I
> >> am guessing that is a
> >> polite way of saying that he dug into indian
> burrial
> >> mounds in the area.
> >> The initials, I am guessing, are  of the finder
> >> since the 1894 corresponds
> >> to the year that it was supposedly found.  There
> are
> >> no river rocks like
> >> that in this area.  However, it has been
> suggested
> >> by another list member
> >> that it could be transported glacial rock.  The
> >> glaciers stopped their
> >> advance along a line in Northern Ohio which is
> >> probably about 100 miles
> >> north of where this was found.........Moundsville
> >> WV.   There were several adena
> >> burial mounds in this area.  Still are two.
> >>
> >> Jim Strope
> >> 421 Fourth Street
> >> Glen Dale, WV  26038
> >>
> >> http://www.catchafallingstar.com
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
____________________________________________________________________________________
> > Do you Yahoo!?
> > Everyone is raving about the all-new Yahoo! Mail
> beta.
> > http://new.mail.yahoo.com
> > ______________________________________________
> > Meteorite-list mailing list
> > Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
> >
>
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
> > 
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________
> Meteorite-list mailing list
> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>
http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
> 



 
____________________________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Access over 1 million songs.
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited