Two New Minerals Discovered In Meteorite

[Steve Herschbach]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2022/11/29/minerals-never-seen-earth-somalia-meteorite/10797611002/

[Rick N. MI]

That's incredible!

[Off Grid]

I've hunted through the various press releases on this and have yet to see anything that gives the actual composition of the minerals. Has anybody had better luck on what's so new? I assume they are likely some new iron-nickel alloy or maybe iron and/or nickel with a new crystal form?

[Beeper Bob]

2 new minerals, great find in a meteorite. I find it interesting that the scientists made the minerals synthetically before they found them in the Somalia meteorite. Like to know the story of how the meteorite was found.

 

[dsb]

Probably not world changing if we came up with it already but absolutely wild it was here for so long before "discovered".     From the web.

"El Ali was found at in a limestone valley 15 kilometres north of El Ali at GPS location 4°17.281’N, 44°53.893’E on September 2020.[1][2] Local pastoralists were aware of the rock for between five and seven generations, and it featured in songs, folklore, dances, and poems.[1] The meteorite was brought to the attention of the international community by Kureym Mining and Rocks Company's staff who were prospecting opals in the area. They identified the rock and started moving it to Mogadishu before the Somalia government intervened.

It is an IAB meteorite."    Tribes called it nightfall and used it to sharpen their knives.    Made me think of "Tutankhamun's meteoric iron dagger,   is an iron-bladed dagger from the tomb of the ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun (reigned c. 1334–1325 BC). As the blade composition and homogeneity closely correlate with meteorite composition and homogeneity, the material for the blade is determined to have originated by way of a meteoritic landing."     

[Randy Lunn]

The UCLA and Caltech researchers referred to in the article are most likely AlanRubin and Chi Ma. In 2021 Rubin and Ma co-authored the definitive work on meteorite minerals: Meteorite Mineralology published by Cambridge Planetary Science. 

From Wikipedia:

Elaliite is a mineral with formula Fe₉PO₁₂ (or Fe²⁺₈Fe³⁺(PO₄)O₈) that was first synthesized in a laboratory in the 1980s and later identified in natural material in 2022 at which time the official mineral designation was given. The mineral is orthorhombic, with space group Cmmm (space group 65).

 

Elkinstantonite /ˌɛlkɪnzˈtæntənaɪt/ is a mineral with formula Fe₄(PO₄)₂O that was first generated in a laboratory in the 1980s^[1] and first identified from natural origins in 2022, when the official mineral designation was also given. It is monoclinic, with space group P2₁/c (space group 14).^[2]