14ers.com

It's actually heavier than it looks. It's now 15 years old without discoloration. Except for the machined part. which is brown now from oxidation. It is in this photo.

http://www.14ers.com/images/userpics/20 ... 5845_l.jpg

It's in the middle, a brown circler item, towards the top.
I took a knife to the glob and could not "shave it".

What I should have done was take a picture of the site before I picked them up. Oh well, lessoned learned in that aspect.

My first guess is that it's a product of a lightning strike. The intense heat melted some rock and that is what you ended up with.

OldSkool70, I am a geologist so I am not going to make a guess without actually touching the thing, but I think it is a very cool find. If you are located in a university town, take it to the geology department and have them analyze it. I know it's more fun to speculate, but if you want an answer let an expert take a look. Let us know what they say. :D

geologist101, and I am Logistics. Meaning I have know idea . It sits on my downstairs bar next a 54 14er's poster/picture and is a "discussion piece". I've trolled this site for years & used it for my peak-bagging & thought it would interesting to share this so I finally joined. As usual, I see some bright & interesting inputs here.

Oldskool70 wrote: It sits on my downstairs bar next a 54 14er's poster/picture and is a "discussion piece".

I hope it's not radioactive...

Knowing my luck it would be the second-coming of the movie "The blob" and steal all my Blue Moon beer.

If it has rusted then it is definitely not aluminum. That and the fact you can't scratch it with a blade and you say it is heavier than it looks makes me really think it is iron. You could try leaving a small piece of it in saltwater overnight to see if it rusts to confirm that. Is it magnetic? If so it is definitely iron based (or less likely, cobalt or nickel) and not aluminum.

I think that's the same spot where I had to leave those 30 PBR cans during a hike in a lightning storm.

That "machined part" looks like it could be a threaded insert. Steel inserts are pretty common in alloy construction as you get stronger threads.

It's all pretty odd and very intriguing.

if it was iron.... being exposed on the mountain would have not allowed it to look like this.

I have mineral specimens in museums across the country that i personally have collected and I own a copper mine.

This is not a Native Mineral of any fashion.

There is No Formation, yes some mineral are botroidal, this is not one of them....

This is Slag! http://www.anagrammer.com/common/images ... l.slag.jpg
http://www.instructables.com/image/FMS9 ... e-slag.jpg
http://www.the-vug.com/vug/aluminum02.JPG

ALL ALUMINUM SLAG!

Here is $100. on it!

it is cool though!

K. Lets go with ALUMINUM slag for now. Although we lack the reminents of a container, could a amateur carefully carry a flash powder mix up the mountain and safely light it? What I've read on these aluminum mixtures is you don't want to have a lot of friction or large amount of the mixture in general without having a MAJOR safety issue. We are probably talking about two+ pounds worth of "mixture". Any chemists out there like to add there thoughts?