A 4.5-billion-year-old space rock that landed in Somalia contains three minerals never before seen in nature. No, not vibranium.
The 15-tonne meteorite was found by prospectors searching for opal two years ago in a lush valley where camels forage.its profile with the International Society for Meteoritics and Planetary Science
"What happened was during the process of classifying it, when I was looking at the slides that we had on an electron microscope, I saw some minerals that it couldn't really identify," said Herd, a professor and curator of the university's meteorite collection, in an interview.Earlier this year, the head of the university's electron microprobe laboratory, Andrew Locock, examined and identified two new minerals.
Although the crystal structure had been created in a lab previously, only once it's discovered in nature are they called minerals and named. The two new minerals have been named elaliite and elkinstantonite. The research is being done in collaboration with UCLA and the California Institute of Technology. Herd said Chi Ma, a mineralogist at the institute, has just gone through the approval process to declare a third new mineral.
Kim Tait, senior curator of mineralogy at the Royal Ontario Museum, said although finding new minerals in meteorites is not common, they are a great place to look.
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