Researchers led by the team from the University of Alberta discovered two brand new minerals that have never been seen before on Earth in a 16.5-ton (15 metric tons) meteorite that landed in Somalia in 2020. According to Global News, it is considered to be the ninth-largest meteorite ever found.
Professor Chris Herd from the university's Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences and the curator of its Meteorite Collection said that finding new mineral in an asteroid always show that its geological conditions and chemistry are different from Earth's composition. It is exciting to discover two new minerals by just examining a meteorite that landed on Earth from space.
A slice of the El Ali meteorite, now housed in the U of A's Meteorite Collection, contains two minerals never before seen on Earth.
Two Brand New Minerals Found
A 70-gram slice of the EL Ali meteorite was sent to the U of A for clarification where researchers investigated the rock. Analysis revealed that it contains new minerals that are not found on Earth and there also appears to be a potential third mineral under consideration, the press release reported.
Herd noted that if only researchers were to obtain more samples from the massive meteorite they could have found more new minerals. The two newly discovered minerals were called elaliite and elkinstantonite, derived from the meteorite's name itself as it is found in the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region in Somalia.
The second mineral was named after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a professor at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Science Exploration, the ASU Interplanetary Initiative vice president, and the principal investigator of the upcoming Psyche mission. Lindy has done a lot of research on how the cores of planets, as well as iron-nickel cores were formed.
U of A researchers collaborated with UCLA and California Institute of Technology researchers to conduct the analysis. They classified the El Ali meteorite as an "Iron IAB complex" meteorite. Herd was analyzing the meteorite when he caught something unusual in the rock.
It usually takes a lot more work to detect a new mineral in a rock, much more in an asteroid. He brought in Andrew Locock, U of A's head of the Electron Microprobe Laboratory who is involved in mineral descriptions, to the team. He identified the two new minerals and compared them to their human-made counterparts.
Researchers continue to examine the minerals to determine what they could contribute to science and when it was formed, as Live Science reported. Herd noted that any new mineral discoveries could yield exciting new uses in a wide range of things in society.
El Ali Meteorite
On September 2020, the El Ali meteorite landed in Somalia. The local herders said that they have heard of legends about space rock through folklore, songs, dances, and poems before so its sudden presence on the land piqued the curiosity of the public.
The space rock was partially immersed in the sand and looked different from the rocks seen in the area, as per The Meteorological Society. Curious people hit it with a sledgehammer and cold chisel to remove a 90 g sample and send it to Nairobi, Kenya for analysis. The sample was then divided into a 70 g split, while 19.23 g was sent to scientists for characterization.
The meteorite was moved for safekeeping while the 19.23 g specimen was further divided for institutions to study it. Meanwhile, numerous fragments of the space rock were reported to be found in the area where the meteorite fell. It was first suggested that the government purchase and conserve it for the numerous stakeholders in Somalia.
But the government released the 16,800-kg rock to the miners where it is stored near the airport to be sold. The meteorite is said to have been moved to China for a potential buyer.
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