How to Identify a Meteorite ☄️ External Features Explained - What to look for & how formed! Asteroid

0:00 Welcome to the highest quality weekly meteorite education. Today we learn all about the external features of meteorites. After watching, you will know how to ID and explain these features found on the outside of meteorites. I advise that you watch the entire show – It is just full of informative Show and Tell and loads education as always.

1:30 Our three goals for you
3:00 Videos: numerous examples (from Germany & Croatia)
31:00 Slickensides
35:30 Earth’s effects on meteorites
37:25 Fusion crust on Aubrites & Carbonaceous
41:49 Raised shock veins
45:00 Fluted / elongated regmaglypts
50:20 Meteorite 101 (deep dive)
1:10:00 Vesicles, Primary vs secondary fusion crust
1:13:30 Examples of weathering, Contraction cracks
1:16:40 Desert varnish
1:18:24 Testing time! (Did we accomplish our goals?)
1:23:30 Ten seconds of the 4 billion years!

1. Flow lines
2. Radial flow lines
3. Oriented / orientation
4. Spawling
5. Regmaglypts
6. Fluted / elongated regmaglypts
7. Hitchhikers
8. Primary fusion crust
9. Secondary fusion crust
10. Desert varnish
11. Caliche
12. Rollover lipping
13. Weathering
14. Slickensides
15. Different colored fusion crusts
16. Iridescent fusion crust
17. Metal blebs
18. Blowouts
19. Contraction cracks
20. Frothy /Pooling fusion crust
21. Vesicles
22. Vugs
23. Raised shock veins
24. High Iron fusion crust (bluing)
25. Impactors on fusion crust
26. Impact scuffs / marks
27. Weathered Widmanstätten patterns

Support my Hangouts – Buy a meteorite!

Join this channel to get access to perks:

#TopherspinMeteorites #OwnYourUniverse #CollectSpace #Hangout #KnowledgeBolide #Meteorite #MeteoriteEducation #Meteorites #MeteoriteCollecting #STEM #Space #Science #Geology #FusionCrust #Flowlines #regmaglypts

* I am unable to look at or help you ID your stones. PLEASE DO NOT ASK.

* Do you believe that you really have a meteorite? The Facebook Groups I recommend have a bunch of knowledgeable geologists and meteorite people in there. Submit quality pictures to:

* Join our next Hangout live!

* Some of my meteorites for sale:

* Places to buy my meteorites

* Buy official Topherspin Meteorites MERCH @

Please support my outreach efforts - Buy a meteorite! Like, subscribe, and share. Be sure to follow me on Facebook where I am very active posting pictures, videos, and information about the meteorites; most are available to purchase.

[AG-yjjv]

Thank you so much for posting this!
There are a lot of people out there in the position of being an experts who are just not aware of all that's been discovered with meteorites in recent years.
It is heartening to see that features I've been noticing, may indeed be things that make a rock more worthy of examination. Yes, I could still be misinterpreting what I'm seeing, but the features are there -- with actual accepted words, that I didn't make up -- to describe them.
Moreover, realizing that if there are enough different features, then I should be able to get an answer for, "what makes this not rollover lipping; these tiny rivulets in the surface, not flow lines?"

If someone just says, "That can't be it because that is very rare, you would never find one" and they refuse to look further, then they may have PhDs, but they are not real scientists. Time to just thank them (politely) for their time, and walk away. They're suffering an incapacity for comprehending variety and change. They're promoting self-fulfilling prophesy, and this is not productive for you -- or Science.

Looking out in the garage and knowing now that my city has had 3 Meteor close encounters in the last 150 years, I do so wish I had taken better care of my rejects.
....A space with less temperature variation, more desicant packs, and investment in O2 absorbers, glass jars... Gloves... Anything you keep is worth keeping properly. If you toss it, you might just wonder later. But if you keep it, and haven't taken care of it? That's going to sting a while. Especially since now, it's not just that somebody ELSE was an idiot.

[Curious_as_cats]

My favorite one yet! Thanks Topher and the crew - I’ve learned so much from you and am so grateful for the time and effort you put into creating these brilliant educational videos.

[HoboMinerals]

First off, Sue, those gloves are everything!! Absolutely in love with those!! Thank you for this video!! There is a lot of information in this that I’ll have to watch a couple more times to retain.. Thanks for what you do!! Super appreciated

[jjsmama]

Whoa! Fascinating! Thank you for your detailed explanations and excellent photos! I will be keeping my eyes peeled!

[MJCain-yeuo]

Thank you so much!!! First time watcher & I learned so very much. I'm going to watch a few times so I can get it down.
Awesome Awesome Awesome !!!

[ianmiller]

Fantastic show Topher. You and the crew give us education that not only informs, but is also so enjoyable to watch. Entertainment at its best.

[lassoatrain]

Hi great video with some real experts sharing information .what more could you hope to find . I don't want to get ahead of the video but right now I am at 19:14 on the video and you are discussing fusion crust and the subject of a meteorite titled, ordinary chondrite Chelyabinsk. I have watched several how to identify a meteorite videos and I think everyone I have ever seen says meteorites don't have holes and they don't contain quartz. If I were to have found this meteorite I would had looked at very carefully having noticed what appears to be a fusion crust . Untill I turned it over and noticed what appears to be quartz . What am I missing . If it appears to be quartz and I visually can see crystals if it is not quartz then what is it ?

[johneblen]

Thanks guys and gals for all you do. Really enjoy these programs. This one is especially helpful. Best to all!

[markmcarthy]

Best, most informative upload yet. (imo)

[danalmos]

More eye candy. Very educational video. Love your shows!

[falgoshzadeh]

You are amazing, i see this video two times until now.just say thank

[highenergyog]

I just found you channel and this video as I was getting ready to head out on a ride, so as to not miss out on watching the rest of this video I’ve decided to hit the subscribe button, as soon as I return home I’ll be making sure to watching more . Best regards as always from Lloyd somewhere here in southern Ontario Canada 🇨🇦.

[krimi]

So enlightening for me. Thank you so much for this video. Greatings from Czech. :)

[HoboMinerals]

If the crust cracks or breaks off, are there still contraction cracks on the surface of the rest of the stone? Or is it smooth and unbothered?

[phillipmilam]

A very informative video that all of you did. Still haven't found what I'm looking for, but this information here has told me why (weatherization). I'm hoping some of your other video's might have what I'm looking for, so I'm on to them.
Thank you.

[wb]

Thanks guys, this was very helpful, much appreciated

[jrfindsjr.originalsfm]

On 10-19-22 at 11:00 to 12:00pm I seen a big light in shy it was close to where I was so the next day I went to where I seen go out, I was looking all around the area, I believe I found it . What is the best way to get it looked at. It was in South San Francisco Ca.

[shahmohshafi]

Good educational video.Live long n continue this glourious educàtion to be spread.Live long whole team!

[coppercountydumpsters]

Outstanding! Thank you all. Now I need to back to all the places I tossed a "rock" down that I thought didn't meet what I had pictured in my head of a meteorite! Dang it!

[erock]

Relatively new subscriber here. Great info in this video. I’m from the Pittsburgh, PA area. And I have something I’ve been sitting on for a few years now. I’m curious if you or anyone in the comments could possibly recommend somewhere (locally🤞) where I could get it checked out. The main reason why I think it could be a meteorite is where I found it. I originally took pictures of where, and the conditions I found it in. But they’re on a phone that ended up getting crushed, so I’d have to spend a few hrs trying to find the pictures on a backup. The photos would verify my story and provide more validity. But I found this quite large rock in someone’s yard that I’ve been doing work for, for years now. And I found it in the transition period from winter to spring. I was doing a walk around their 3+ acre property and came across a line of deep ruts in the grass with a large rock sitting in the last rut of the line. And it was somewhere that it would’ve been run over by a lawnmower had it been there prior to the winter season. And the way it was sitting, you could tell that it wasn’t from the freeze/thaw that occurs over winter. I sent pictures of the sample, and gave the backstory to a local rock/gem shop. But I could tell that they weren’t taking me seriously, and said that it would cost a couple hundred to have it sent out and tested at a lab. Any tips or advice would be greatly appreciate 🙏