David Hole was hopeful he had unearthed gold with his metal detector, but he actually stumbled upon something much more extraordinary; however, uncovering its secrets took numerous years. Share Article Share Article Facebook X LinkedIn Reddit Bluesky Email Copy Link Link copied Bookmark Comments
A man, exploring with his metal detector one morning, thought he had discovered a huge gold nugget. In actuality, what he found was much more exceptional.
David Hole made the amazing discovery in the gentle, ochre soil of Maryborough Regional Park, located close to Melbourne, Australia. Considering that the area had a gold rush in the latter part of the 19th Century, which changed Australia from a far-off convict settlement to a magnet for aspiring immigrants, his assumption wasn’t completely unrealistic.
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Yet, what David had dug up on that sunny May day was significantly rarer and more precious than gold. The primary clues concerning the true essence of the enigmatic rock surfaced when David tried to slice it open to confirm his gold discovery. Contrary to gold, which is a rather pliable metal, David’s discovery resisted rock saws, drills, acids, and even a powerful strike from a sledgehammer.
Eventually, three years after its discovery, David put the rock in his rucksack and took it to the Melbourne Museum. There, geologists Dermot Henry and Bill Birch disclosed to David the astonishing reality about his find: it was a meteorite estimated to be 4.6 billion years old.
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While they frequently have visitors who believe they’ve come across a space rock, genuine meteorites are extremely uncommon. However, the moment Dermot spotted David’s discovery, he promptly recognised its exceptional nature.
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“It possessed this sculpted, dimpled aesthetic,” he confided in the Sydney Morning Herald. “That takes shape as they journey through the atmosphere, undergoing melting on the exterior, and the atmosphere molds them.”
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During an interview with Channel 10 News, he underscored the scarcity of the discovery, asserting: “This marks just the 17th meteorite uncovered in Victoria, in contrast to the thousands of gold nuggets discovered.
“Reflecting on the sequence of occurrences, it’s rather, you might say, incredible that it was even found at all.”
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The stone, now referred to as the Maryborough Meteorite, most likely originates from the very earliest stages of the Solar System. Dermot explained: “Meteorites offer the most economical means of space exploration. They transport us back in time, offering insights into the age, creation, and chemistry of our Solar System – including Earth.
“Some afford a glimpse into the deep interior of our planet. Within certain meteorites, there exists ‘stardust,’ even predating our Solar System, which demonstrates how stars are formed and develop to produce elements of the periodic table.
“Other uncommon meteorites hold organic molecules such as amino acids; the fundamental components of life.” Composed of incredibly dense types of iron and nickel, the Maryborough Meteorite is noticeably heavier than a typical rock of similar dimensions.
“If you were to encounter a rock like this on earth, and you picked it up, it shouldn’t weigh that much,” Dr Birch remarked.
The geologists used an extremely hard diamond saw to penetrate the meteorite, unveiling an internal structure of minute crystallised droplets of metallic minerals recognised as chondrules. The rock has been classified as an H-type ordinary chondrite – the most dominant variety of meteorite, constituting around 40% of all those documented.
They are believed to stem from a thick body in the Asteroid Belt named Hebe, and scattered all through the solar system by impacts between celestial bodies. “You’re witnessing directly the birth of the solar system here,” Dermot stated.
Following a lengthy, individual voyage around the Sun, at some juncture in the last 1,000 years or so, David’s rock was ensnared by Earth’s gravitational pull and plunged into the ground near Maryborough. A potential date for its arrival is in June 1951, when a substantial fireball was seen streaking across the sky near where the Maryborough Meteorite was unearthed.
It’s an extraordinary discovery, David said: “It was simply good fortune, mate. A billion to one – more like a trillion to one. You’ve got a greater chance of getting struck by lightning twice.”