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A unique World War II battlefield artifact fused to a beach deposit

Agnieszka Gałuszka

Agnieszka Gałuszka

Institute of Chemistry, Jan Kochanowski University in KielceKielce, Poland
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Gałuszka, Agnieszka
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Zdzisław M. Migaszewski

Zdzisław M. Migaszewski

Institute of Chemistry, Jan Kochanowski University in KielceKielce, Poland
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Migaszewski, Zdzisław M.
  
Aug 22, 2025
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Article Category: Letter
Published Online: Aug 22, 2025
Page range: 52 - 57
Received: Jan 17, 2025
Accepted: Jul 03, 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/mipo-2025-0007
Keywords
© 2025 Agnieszka Gałuszka et al., published by Sciendo
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Figure 1.

(A) Map of the Baltic Sea with marked Kołobrzeg location. (B) A site on the Kołobrzeg beach where the specimen was found.
(A) Map of the Baltic Sea with marked Kołobrzeg location. (B) A site on the Kołobrzeg beach where the specimen was found.

Figure 2.

Major components of a bullet.
Major components of a bullet.

Figure 3.

(A) Macrophotograph of the worn machine gun bullet embedded in a conglomeratic Fe/Mn-rich quartz-limestone sandstone bound to a semi-rounded micritic limestone pebble (+HCl). Specimen microphotographs: (B) upper part of the worn bullet encircled by a sintered Fe/Mn-rich halo, (C) a fragment of the bullet-sandstone boundary with a distinct Fe/Mn-rich streak, (D) a ferruginous sandstone (center) in direct contact with a limestone pebble (left) and a bullet fragment (right).
(A) Macrophotograph of the worn machine gun bullet embedded in a conglomeratic Fe/Mn-rich quartz-limestone sandstone bound to a semi-rounded micritic limestone pebble (+HCl). Specimen microphotographs: (B) upper part of the worn bullet encircled by a sintered Fe/Mn-rich halo, (C) a fragment of the bullet-sandstone boundary with a distinct Fe/Mn-rich streak, (D) a ferruginous sandstone (center) in direct contact with a limestone pebble (left) and a bullet fragment (right).

Figure 4.

(A) Macrophotograph of a ferruginous limestone pebble in direct contact with a conglomeratic sandstone. (B) Microphotograph showing a more detailed microtextural relationship between the conglomeratic sandstone and the limestone pebble; note that the yellow ferruginous streak separates these two petrographic components, which may also point to heating.
(A) Macrophotograph of a ferruginous limestone pebble in direct contact with a conglomeratic sandstone. (B) Microphotograph showing a more detailed microtextural relationship between the conglomeratic sandstone and the limestone pebble; note that the yellow ferruginous streak separates these two petrographic components, which may also point to heating.

Concentrations of elements in three different parts of the sample (in mg/kg, otherwise indicated as %)_

Part Ba Ca Cu Fe K Mn S Si Ti Zn
L 320 ± 60 36.3 ± 0.2% 68 ± 14 1.24 ± 0.02% 3642 ± 177 338 ± 56 1217 ± 89 2.41 ± 0.09% 413 ± 81 104 ± 10
S 315 ± 63 14.6 ± 0.1% 90 ± 17 8.37 ± 0.07% 4203 ± 230 1959 ± 112 8041 ± 136 14.5 ± 0.19% 2228 ± 106 112 ± 12
B 380 ± 199 6284 ± 519 67.0 ± 1.6% 2.56 ± 0.03% 405 ± 195 314 ± 97 9970 ± 418 1.70 ± 0.06% 279 ± 65 7.78 ± 02%
CRM NIST 27280 hard rock mine waste
Certified 993 1950 215.5 2.78% 3.38% 462 1.26% 31% 6990 2570
Determined 973 ± 38 1950 ± 99 177 ± 16 2.22 ± 0.2% 3.31 ± 0.1% 434 ± 58 1.10 ± 0.1% 27 ± 0.1% 6710 ± 102 2082 ± 37
Recovery 98% 100% 82% 80% 98% 94% 85% 86% 96% 81%
Language:
English
Publication timeframe:
1 times per year
Journal Subjects:
Geosciences, Geophysics, Geosciences, other
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