brasky12 wrote:Apologies for bumping but... I recently got my rare-earth magnet, began searching and within 15 minutes had a strong hit - but of course the streak test left a spanking grey trail
it seems like responsive earth rocks are so abundant that searching in a non strewn-field is utterly futile.
I'm not entirely sure what the following image shows, as I made it a while ago. I suspect it is the cumulative total known weight of all meteorites listed in the Catalogue of Meteorites. You may be able to name the falls responsible for the marked steps in 1949, 1969 and 1976 ...
- Accretion Rate
The meteoritical database is accumulating meteorites at less than 400 kg per year; typically nearer to 100 kg per year. That accumulation of meteorites is spread across the planet's land mass surface area of 148,939,063.133 km2 (thanks Wikipedia). So, on average, we may expect to find (100000/148939063) 0.00067 g of meteoritic material falling per square kilometre per year. Even if I'm wildly pessimistic, it's not great odds of finding a meteorite outside of a known strewn field ...
On the other hand, rocks with significant iron content are interesting. If you can identify them as being igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic, or possibly man-made. And then work out why there are lots of them where you live, that could be very rewarding.