Meteorite Found In Somalia Has Two Foreign Minerals

Meteorite weighing 15 tons turns out to keep a secret (photo: dock. University of Alberta)

JAKARTA - The 15-ton meteorite has a secret that researchers have successfully disclosed, namely two new minerals that have never been seen at all on Earth.

The space rock is the ninth largest ever found with a width of more than 2 meters, and was excavated in Somalia in 2020.

The two minerals found came from a 70 gram slice sent to the University of Alberta, Canada for classification purposes, and it appears that a third potential mineral is being considered.

"Every time you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological condition, rock chemistry, is different from what was found before," said Chris Herd, curator of the University of Alberta Meteorite Collection.

According to Herad, if researchers get more samples from the meteorite, there is a possibility that more can be found. The two newly discovered minerals are named Elaliite and Elkinstantonite.

Elaliite received her name from the meteorite itself, dubbed the El Ali meteorite because it was found near the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region, Somalia.

Herd named the second mineral inspired by Lindy Elkins-Tanton, the main investigator of NASA's upcoming Psyche mission, a trip to a unique metal-rich asteroid orbiting the Sun between Mars and Jupiter.

"Lindy has done a lot of work on how the planet's core was formed, how this nickel iron core was formed, and the closest analog we have is iron meteorites. So it makes sense to name the mineral by name and acknowledge its contribution to science," explained Herd.

Launching Metro, Tuesday, December 27, in collaboration with researchers at the UCLA and the California Institute of Technology, Herd classified the meteorite El Ali as a Iron meteorite, the IAB complex, one of more than 350 meteorites in certain categories.

Since the first day of analysis, researchers learned the meteorite had at least two new minerals.

"It's phenomenal. Most of the time it takes more work than that to say there are new minerals," said Heard.

Previously, researchers had made synthetic versions of the two minerals in the 1980s, so the composition of natural minerals newly found can be matched with man-made minerals.

Currently, researchers are continuing to analyze minerals to determine what they can know about the condition of meteorites when they form.

In fact, the researchers wanted to examine other samples of the same meteorite, but Herd said there were reports it had been transferred to China. Meteorites are often purchased and sold in international markets.