A meteorite that fell in Somalia in 2020 contains at least two minerals that are not found on Earth. The identification of the two minerals was made by researchers at the University of Alberta, as reported in a press release.
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Countless space rocks enter Earth's atmosphere every day and immediately ignite. Most space rocks burn up as they pass through the atmosphere and never reach the ground. Those that do are called meteorites.
Although large meteorites are not common, they have been known to fall in some areas, such as El Ali in Somalia. The huge meteorite weighs 15 tons and is the ninth largest discovered to date.
A small 70-gram sample of the meteorite was sent to the University of Alberta for classification, where researchers discovered two minerals that don't exist on Earth. "Any time a new mineral is discovered, it means that the geological conditions and the chemistry of the rock were unique," said Chris Herd, a professor in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences and curator of the Meteorite Collection at the university.
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After collaborating with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and the California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Herd was able to classify the meteorite as an Iron IAB complex. This type of meteorite is made up of iron and silicate inclusions.
Herd's research was also bolstered by the University of Alberta's Electron Microscopy Laboratory, where an initial analysis revealed the presence of two minerals. Such investigations often require a lot of time and effort to determine whether a new mineral exists. In this case, the minerals in question had already been synthetically created, making it easier for the researchers to confirm their discovery.
Interestingly, there is a third new mineral that cannot be confirmed at this time until further analysis is completed.
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So far, the minerals that have been confirmed to have been discovered are elalite and elkinstantonite. The former is named after the town of El Ali, which is closest to where the meteorite was found. The latter is named after Lindy Elkins-Tanton, a researcher at Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration.
The El Ali meteorite has reportedly been taken to China in search of a potential buyer, so this could be the last we hear of it. It is currently unknown whether the buyer will allow further samples to be taken for scientific analysis if it is sold.
