Bone, Coal, Petrified Wood???

[jwalker]

Need some ID help please. Found on the beach in South Carolina. Roughly 2” by 1.5”. Thanks. 

 

[Rockwood]

Coal.

[PrehistoricWonders]

Agreed

[jwalker]

This piece is heavy as if it is rock. All of the coal that I've handled has been very light comparably. Could it be a piece of petrified wood?

 

[FranzBernhard]

52 minutes ago, jwalker said:

This piece is heavy as if it is rock.

Strange! It looks indeed like a piece of vitrain (coal). The weathered surface to the lower left looks a little bit odd, but I have seen similar weathered surfaces on local jet (also a kind of vitrain and coal).

Try to ignite a small splinter - what happens?

What happens if you try to make some powder? How does the powder look like?
Are you able to make a density measurement?

There is also a chance that it is coalified at the outside and petrified inside. Like this piece of partly coalified, partly petrified wood on page 14, lower left:

Petrified-Coalified (pdf, ca. 4 MB, external site, in German)

 

Edit: Ha! Could it be some kind of slag? I think, I see an air bubble within the strangely weathered (??) surface in the lower  left corner!

 

Franz Bernhard

[jwalker]

10 minutes ago, FranzBernhard said:

Strange! It looks indeed like a piece of vitrain (coal). The weathered surface to the lower left looks a little bit odd, but I have seen similar weathered surfaces on local jet (also a kind of vitrain and coal).

Try to ignite a small splinter - what happens?

What happens if you try to make some powder? How does the powder look like?
Are you able to make a density measurement?

There is also a chance that it is coalified at the outside and petrified inside. Like this piece of partly coalified, partly petrified wood on page 14, lower left:

Petrified-Coalified (pdf, ca. 4 MB, external site, in German)

 

Edit: Ha! Could it be some kind of slag? I think, I see an air bubble within the strangely weathered (??) surface in the lower  left corner!

 

Franz Bernhard

Franz thanks for the great info. I'm traveling today but will have a chance to try to light a small piece over the weekend and will post the results.