Anthropogenic Coal Ash as a Contaminant in a Micro-meteoritic Underwater Search

Abstract

Abstract Chemical composition for spherules recovered from the search area of CNEOS 2014-01-08 in the Pacific Ocean has been recently released. A three-order of magnitude difference from CI-chondrites has been identified for elements beryllium, lanthanum and uranium in five samples. The lack of consensus regarding atmospheric survival and precision of path estimates motivate an examination of possible contaminants. Contents of nickel, beryllium, lanthanum and uranium are examined in the context of a known anthropogenic source of contamination, and found to be consistent with coal ash as suggested from a publicly available coal chemical composition database (COALQUAL). The meteoritic origin is disfavored.