Scientific Quarterly Journal of Geosciences

Scientific Quarterly Journal of Geosciences

What is the "Tooyserkan stone",indeed?

Author
Institute of Geophysics, Tehran University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
On June 27th, 1985, near midnight, people in Tooyserkan and the nearby villages witnessed the fall of a 5.7kg stone from the sky and its landing in Esmaeel Abad. After preliminary studies, the stone was named "Tooyserkan meteorite" or " Tooyserkanite", despite its 93% Silica content and lack of any characteristic minerals of meteorites and lunar felsic samples. However, an independent investigation on the saturated activities of cosmogenic radionuclides in this stone does not show the presence of this stone in the extra-terrestrial space. Therefore, the Tooyserkan stone cannot be considered as a meteorite.
Based on texture, mineralogy and chemical composition, this stone is a quartz arenite that bears evidence of shock and partial melting. Its Sr isotopic ratio and rare earth element distribution pattern are also similar to those of terrestrial clastic sediments.
It seems that the Tooyserkan stone is a fulgurite and its fall from the sky was probably due to the strike of a powerful lightning or a missile on the mountain ridges surrounding the town of Tooyserkan.
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Volume 7, 25-26
Autumn & Winter 1998, vol. 7, No. 25-26
Winter 1998
Pages 2-9