Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of treasurebeachesreport.blogspot.com.
I just received an excellent email from Jerry P. on those melted pieces of white metal that people find on the beach. Here it is.
Aluminum or Space Poop by Jerry P.
It’s been called melted beer cans, space poop, space platinum, NASA trash. So is it space debris or beer cans? This is a debate that has been going on for years within our group of beach hunters. All I can do is add to the puzzle and maybe someone can put this dog to rest.
If you detect the beach long enough you will eventually pull a piece of what appears to be aluminum or titanium melted by super high temperature. Aluminum has a melting point of 1,220.58 F or 660.32 C and titanium 3034 F or 1668 C. A bonfire, at it’s highest temperature, if constructed correctly, can burn as high as 2012 F or 1100 C plenty hot enough to melt aluminum but not titanium. You maybe thinking slam dunk, case closed it’s melted beer cans. Hold on the dilemma is not over yet. Rockets are made of light weight materials like titanium and aluminum. Rocket propellant, under a controlled manner, burns at around 5,800 F or 3,200 C. This is plenty hot enough to melt aluminum and titanium. This temperature is based on a controlled burn within the rocket engine. If the lunch had an unexpected “anomaly” then these propellant would be mixed in an uncontrolled burn/explosion which could result in much higher temperatures. We are back to square one!
I detect with an old machine (sovereign gt) and it just talks to me. Aluminum has a distinct sound on the sovereign and the one thing that I notice about these melted pieces is that they sound something between aluminum and silver. This tells me it’s not aluminum and must be another type of metal.
A bonfire test is in order. I stoked a fire in the backyard pit and waited for it to get good and hot before adding some aluminum cans. I let the fire burn overnight with the cans inside. In the morning I took my inland machine (AT Pro), pinpointer and a sifting screen to retrieve all metal targets. The cans did melt or at least they changed their form however they did not look anything like the pieces we pull off the beach. They did not melt into a blob and were very thin and brittle. The pieces we pull off the beach are rock solid and can hardly be dented with a hammer.
I was starting to believe the beach pieces could very well be part of our space program or military missile defense program of which one is still ongoing today.
There are other things to consider like the Untied States Air force. They have a restricted military training zone just off our coast and could be firing air missiles. We also have our poorly constructed beach renourishment program to consider. Much of this renourishment sand comes from the offshore bars around Cape Canaveral. This would most differently support a space debris theory.
What solidified it for me was when I started pulling specimen pieces. These were pieces of the melted metal that have unique items embedded in them. Items that you don’t see at your average bonfire, some kind of thick quartz or crystals, rivets, orange and red tile like fragments and my best piece has both quartz/crystal and a small stainless steel spring embedded in it. Would love to hear if anyone has looked into these pieces. JP
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Thanks much Jerry. Great email!
Below is a related post that I did on 5/10/18.
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| Metal Glob Found On Beach How can you tell if it is titanium? |
Sometimes space debris falls on the beach or in the ocean. People often want to know if their shiny piece of metal could be a piece of space debris.
It can be difficult to say for sure, but there are tests that you can do to tell if a piece might be titanium or aluminum. I once wrote about that a long time ago, but since I still get the question and have more information now, I decided to address the question again.
Here are some quick tips that can help you decide what you have.
Here are some easy tests to get started. Titanium is not magnetic, so if a magnet sticks to it, it is not titanium. However, aluminum is normally not magnetic either. So that is only a beginning.
When it comes to telling titanium from aluminum, titanium is about twice as heavy as aluminum and much harder than aluminum. If you use a metal file, aluminum will come off in small globs, but titanium will not. It is relatively easy to scratch a mark on aluminum.
If you file down beyond the surface metal, the newly exposed surface of titanium will darker than a similar piece of aluminum.
If you used a rotary grinder on a piece of titanium, the sparks will be a blue-white color.
Here is a link to a web site that will give you more detail on these and other tests for testing titanium and other metals.
http://mrtitanium.info/2008/03/17/how-to-tell-if-a-piece-of-metal-is-really-titanium/
Titanium is used for a lot of applications these days. Everything from wheelchairs and bicycles to parts for rockets and wedding rings are made with titanium. If you find a ring that doesn't test gold or silver, it might be titanium.
Titanium isn't a very expensive metal. You can find current prices online.
Big pieces of space debris are occasionally found too. Here is a link to an article about space debris including the above tank from the space shuttle Columbia that landed in Texas.
https://www.space.com/12518-space-shuttle-columbia-debris-texas.html
In 2015 a large piece of what looks like a piece of a Galileo rocket was found on the beach in Fort Lauderdale.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/broward/fl-lauderdale-rocket-debris-20150802-story.html
And in January of 2018 a part of a SpaceX rocket was found in South Carolina.
You never know what you might find, so it always helps to be able to test it out.
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I know of at least one detectorist who contacted NASA and got confirmation that his find was a titanium space debris. Of course that does not mean that all specimens are.
You might be able to find the post reporting on the person contacting NASA if you use the blog search box.
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Bill P. just sent me an email suggesting XRF analysis. I think that should do the job.
I did a post on XRF analysis recently but didn't think about it when I did this post.
Thanks Bill!
I did a post on XRF analysis recently but didn't think about it when I did this post.
Thanks Bill!
Happy hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net
