So, I have been waiting to post this due to the nature of the find, but thought I would post it in here so people can follow along on this. This is fairly in depth, so be patient.
I was digging in a park next to a botanical garden doing a surface search after a volley ball outing had been done the previous day in that park. My friends were doing the normal digging out in the park, I was just scanning where the tents and people had been. Had my Garrett ACE Apex set on just two bars for sensitivity, and on coin to tone out any junk which there is a lot of iron in this park. So I hit a solid tone, but it was bouncing. It was in the 83-90 range, but showing pretty deep for what I was doing. My curiosity got the best of me, so I went ahead and dug it up. It was about 8 inches deep, right under a tree root. You'll see from the pics, that it appeared to be aluminum. Right before I really got to digging, I was scanning to make sure I was over the right spot, and kept getting a bouncing signal. So I got it out, and realized it wasn't aluminum after a bit, because it was so hard, and the marks weren't from it being "folded" over. Took it over to my buddy, he couldn't figure it out, and his detector was coming in just under silver too. I took it to have it tested that afternoon, (It was a Sunday) and it wasn't silver. Intrigued, I started doing some looking on the web. A friend of mine asked me if it may be a nickel core from a space rock. I found a pic or two that kinda matched it, so I called down the the Museum of Nat Science here in the area and asked if they would look at it. The lady told me not to get too excited, it was probably just a piece of iron junk or something along those lines. I told her it didn't come close to sticking to a magnet, I tried that because I have some fishing magnets and it wouldn't stick to them. She said bring it on in, let them look at it. A geologist at the facility looked at is, and through his jewlers roule could see where it had seperated from it's parent object. He said whatever it was, it had been violently done at an extremely high velocity. He said it actually looked like a bomb fragment. We ruled out Civil war era, due to the color, and depth. Around here most things like this found in the park that were of that era are usually a tad shallower. We have a very large park that was an encampment and people dig up era pieces all the time. So I was thinking space junk, something along those lines. I jokingly asked if it was radioactive. He laughed, said more than likely 99.9 per cent not. But he would test it. Testing shows it WAS RADIOACTIVE. Not dangerous, but the signature was still there. To be sure, another piece of equipment was brought in and it was tested a little deeper. It was radioactive, and it was giving off a definitive signature. The young man testing it was perplexed, and he said he thought it was Tritium(sp?) or something like that. I asked what he was talking about and he said that was the casing on the Trinity bomb used in the Manhattan project. Ok, so now we are really wondering. At that time, a scientist from the museum was over looking into who in the area may have been involved with this, and we found a Dr. Robert Moon who was from Springfield, and whose parents lived here. They did a prelim test on the metal to see if they could determine what it was, and it came back negative. There are numerous theories, but now I have been in touch with a Physics lead at the local University. The metal is fixing to be tested under a gamma spectometer to see what the alloy is, where it was made, and what is giving off or holding the radiation. I will update this thread as I find out, but thought I would throw this out there. Very unique find right now, especially since no one knows what it is or might be at this time. I'll keep you guys posted on what we find out.
I was digging in a park next to a botanical garden doing a surface search after a volley ball outing had been done the previous day in that park. My friends were doing the normal digging out in the park, I was just scanning where the tents and people had been. Had my Garrett ACE Apex set on just two bars for sensitivity, and on coin to tone out any junk which there is a lot of iron in this park. So I hit a solid tone, but it was bouncing. It was in the 83-90 range, but showing pretty deep for what I was doing. My curiosity got the best of me, so I went ahead and dug it up. It was about 8 inches deep, right under a tree root. You'll see from the pics, that it appeared to be aluminum. Right before I really got to digging, I was scanning to make sure I was over the right spot, and kept getting a bouncing signal. So I got it out, and realized it wasn't aluminum after a bit, because it was so hard, and the marks weren't from it being "folded" over. Took it over to my buddy, he couldn't figure it out, and his detector was coming in just under silver too. I took it to have it tested that afternoon, (It was a Sunday) and it wasn't silver. Intrigued, I started doing some looking on the web. A friend of mine asked me if it may be a nickel core from a space rock. I found a pic or two that kinda matched it, so I called down the the Museum of Nat Science here in the area and asked if they would look at it. The lady told me not to get too excited, it was probably just a piece of iron junk or something along those lines. I told her it didn't come close to sticking to a magnet, I tried that because I have some fishing magnets and it wouldn't stick to them. She said bring it on in, let them look at it. A geologist at the facility looked at is, and through his jewlers roule could see where it had seperated from it's parent object. He said whatever it was, it had been violently done at an extremely high velocity. He said it actually looked like a bomb fragment. We ruled out Civil war era, due to the color, and depth. Around here most things like this found in the park that were of that era are usually a tad shallower. We have a very large park that was an encampment and people dig up era pieces all the time. So I was thinking space junk, something along those lines. I jokingly asked if it was radioactive. He laughed, said more than likely 99.9 per cent not. But he would test it. Testing shows it WAS RADIOACTIVE. Not dangerous, but the signature was still there. To be sure, another piece of equipment was brought in and it was tested a little deeper. It was radioactive, and it was giving off a definitive signature. The young man testing it was perplexed, and he said he thought it was Tritium(sp?) or something like that. I asked what he was talking about and he said that was the casing on the Trinity bomb used in the Manhattan project. Ok, so now we are really wondering. At that time, a scientist from the museum was over looking into who in the area may have been involved with this, and we found a Dr. Robert Moon who was from Springfield, and whose parents lived here. They did a prelim test on the metal to see if they could determine what it was, and it came back negative. There are numerous theories, but now I have been in touch with a Physics lead at the local University. The metal is fixing to be tested under a gamma spectometer to see what the alloy is, where it was made, and what is giving off or holding the radiation. I will update this thread as I find out, but thought I would throw this out there. Very unique find right now, especially since no one knows what it is or might be at this time. I'll keep you guys posted on what we find out.