He Thought It Was a Rock, But It Turned Out to Be More Valuable Than Gold
Back in 2015, David Hole, who was metal detecting in the Maryborough region of Australia, stumbled upon a stone that was unusually heavy for its size. He took the rock home and tried every possible method to crack it open, yet not a single scratch could be made. It was only years later that he realized the stone concealed a truth far more valuable than anything he could have imagined.
The rock found in Maryborough turned out to be a rare meteorite that had fallen to Earth.
In 2015, David Hole stumbled upon a peculiar stone while roaming with his metal detector. The stone, reddish in hue and significantly heavier than usual, was wedged in a layer of yellow clay. Given the region's renowned history of gold mining, it was only natural to presume that he had discovered a massive chunk of gold. Hole shared this assumption and attempted to crack open the stone back at his home.
However, his efforts proved futile. He attempted to saw it, drill into it, treat it with acid, and even tried to shatter it with a sledgehammer. Not a single crack appeared on the stone. This seemingly ordinary stone, which sat in his home for years, was far from ordinary. Unable to quell his curiosity, Hole took the stone to the Melbourne Museum, where its true nature was finally revealed.
Upon examining the rock, experts realized it was a 17-kilogram meteor, aged at a staggering 4.6 billion years.
Dermot Henry, a geologist stationed at the Melbourne Museum, noticed that this rock was too heavy to be just an ordinary stone. The melted traces on its outer surface were characteristic signs of a meteor passing through the atmosphere. Throughout his career, Henry had examined thousands of stones, yet he had confirmed only two to be genuine meteors. The Maryborough meteorite turned out to be one of these rare examples.
When scientists took a small piece from the rock and cut it with a special diamond saw, they discovered that more than half of its interior was composed of iron. The remaining portion contained crystallized metal droplets known as 'chondrules'.
This structure served as evidence that the meteorite dated back to the early periods of the Solar System, meaning that the rock was even older than the formation of Earth itself.
A treasure far more precious than gold for the scientific community: One of only 17 meteors found in Victoria.
The Maryborough meteorite is considered an extraordinary discovery from a scientific perspective. Structures like this, arriving from space, carry crucial information about the formation of our Solar System. In fact, some meteorites can even harbor amino acids, the building blocks of life.
Experts assert that the unfolding of events was purely fortuitous. This is because the meteorite could have remained unnoticed beneath the earth for thousands of years. Today, it not only features in museum displays but is also recounted as one of the most intriguing discovery stories in Australia.
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