Two New Minerals Discovered In The 9th Largest Meteorite To Hit Our Planet

Researchers have discovered two minerals from a 15-tonne meteorite found in Somalia that have never before been seen on our planet.

University of Alberta

The minerals were extracted from a single 70-gram slice which was sent to the University of Alberta’s Meteorite collection for classification. In fact, there also already appears to be a third mineral that’s potentially under consideration.?

If more samples are obtained, even more materials could be discovered, claims Chris Herd, a professor from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences as well as curator at the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Collection.

The two newly discovered minerals have been named elaliite (named after the meteor El Ali? that was found in the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region of Somalia) and elkinstantonite (named after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president of the ASU Interplanetary Initiative, professor at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration).?

The research was done in collaboration with researchers from UCLA and the California Institute of Technology. Herd classified Et Ali meteorite as an iron IAB complex meteorite, one of over 350 in that particular category.?

While analysing the meteorite to classify it, he saw something strange. He then called on the expertise of Andrew Locock, head of the U of A’s Electron Microprobe Laboratory who has been a part of other new mineral descriptions including Heamanite.?

University of Alberta

Locock told Herd that he had at least two new minerals in there. This was surprising since it takes a lot of work to even find one mineral. Locock’s rapid identification was possible since two minerals had been synthetically created before, so he was able to match the composition of the newly discovered natural minerals with their human-made counterparts.?

Herd said in a statement, “That’s my expertise — how you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of. I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”?

He added, “Whenever there’s a new material that’s known, material scientists are interested too because of the potential uses in a wide range of things in society.”

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