Canada (Commonwealth Union) – Meteorites are solid rocks from outer space that have always been of key interest to scientists, as the evaluation of the composition of a meteorite can give us clues to the environment they came from how it compares to the earth’s atmosphere. Scientist have discovered at least two new minerals, never previously identified on Earth in a 15-tonne meteorite seen in Somalia, which was the 9th biggest meteorite discovered.
“Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what’s been found before,” explained Chris Herd, a professor in the Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the University of Alberta (U of A) Meteorite Collection. “That’s what makes this exciting: In this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”
The two minerals discovered arrived from a single 70-gram slice sent to the U of A to be classified, which has already indicated a possible 3rd mineral under consideration. The possibility of scientist obtaining further samples from the massive meteorite, will bring a chance that even more might be found, according to Herd.
The two newly found minerals were named elaliite and elkinstantonite. The first named after the meteorite itself, dubbed the “El Ali” meteorite as it was seen near the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region of Somalia. Herd named the second mineral after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, vice president from the ASU Interplanetary Initiative, professor at Arizona State University’s School of Earth and Space Exploration as well as the principal investigator of NASA’s near future Psyche mission.
The future surrounding the meteorite remains uncertain. Herd stated that the scientists have received information that it may have been transferred to China in search of a possible buyer. It remains to be seen if more samples will be available for research.
