The El Ali meteorite, a 15.2-ton iron meteorite found in 2020 near the tiny town of El Ali in Somalia, contains at least two new minerals: elaliite and elkinstantonite.
This sample of the El Ali meteorite contains two new minerals: elaliite and elkinstantonite. Image credit: Nick Gessler / Duke University.
“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,” said University of Alberta’s Professor Chris Herd.
“That’s what makes this exciting: in this particular meteorite you have two officially described minerals that are new to science.”
The two minerals, elaliite and elkinstantonite, came from a 70-g slice that was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, and there already appears to be a potential third mineral under consideration.
“If researchers were to obtain more samples from the massive meteorite, there’s a chance that even more might be found,” Professor Herd said.
Professor Herd and his colleagues from the University of Alberta, the University of California, Los Angeles and Caltech classified the El Ali as an ‘Iron, IAB complex’ meteorite, one of over 350 in that particular category.
“The very first day University of Alberta’s Dr. Andrew Locock did some analyses, he said, ‘You’ve got at least two new minerals in there.’ That was phenomenal. Most of the time it takes a lot more work than that to say there’s a new mineral,” Professor Herd said.
“The rapid identification was possible because the 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.”
The scientists are continuing to examine the new minerals to determine what they can tell us about the conditions in the meteorite when it formed.
“That’s my expertise — how you tease out the geologic processes and the geologic history of the asteroid this rock was once part of,” Professor Herd said.
“I never thought I’d be involved in describing brand new minerals just by virtue of working on a meteorite.”
“Any new mineral discoveries could possibly yield exciting new uses down the line,” he said.
“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.”
“While the future of the El Ali meteorite remains uncertain, we’ve received news that it appears to have been moved to China in search of a potential buyer.”
“It remains to be seen whether additional samples will be available for scientific purposes.”
He described the findings on November 21 at the Space Exploration Symposium 2022 (SES 2022).
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Chris Herd. The El Ali Meteorite: Ancient History and New Minerals. SES 2022
