The El Ali meteorite (also known as Nightfall) is a 15.2 ton (16,800 kg)

meteorite A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or Natural satellite, moon. When the ...

that was known to the local population in Somalia for generations, but first scientifically identified in 2020.

Discovery and identification

El Ali was found in a limestone valley 15 kilometres north of El Ali at GPS location 4°17.281’N, 44°53.893’E on September 2020. Local pastoralists were aware of the rock for between five and seven generations, and it featured in songs, folklore, dances, and poems. The meteorite was brought to the attention of the international community by Kureym Mining and Rocks Company's staff who were prospecting for

opals Optical Payload for Lasercomm Science (OPALS) is a spacecraft communication instrument developed at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory that was tested on the International Space Station (ISS) from 18 April 2014 to 17 July 2014 to demonstrate the te ...

in the area. They identified the rock and started moving it to

Mogadishu Mogadishu (, also ; so, Muqdisho or ; ar, مقديشو ; it, Mogadiscio ), locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port ...

before the Somalia government intervened. It is an

IAB meteorite IAB meteorites are a group of iron meteorites according to their overall composition and a group of primitive achondrites because of silicate inclusions that show a strong affinity to winonaites and chondrites. Description The IAB meteorites are ...

Mineral identification

In 2022, scientists from the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

identified two new minerals ( elaliite and

elkinstantonite Elkinstantonite is a mineral with formula that was first generated in a laboratory in the 1980s and first identified from natural origins in 2022, when the official mineral designation was also given. It is monoclinic, with space group P21''/c' ...

) in a 70 gram piece of the meteorite. The minerals were identified by Andrew Locock, the head of the university's

electron microprobe An electron microprobe (EMP), also known as an electron probe microanalyzer (EPMA) or electron micro probe analyzer (EMPA), is an analytical tool used to non-destructively determine the chemical composition of small volumes of solid materials. It ...

laboratory. Synthetic versions of both minerals had previously been produced in a French laboratory in the 1980s, but

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. Th ...

rules meant they could not be approved as an official

mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid chemical compound with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. ( ...

until they were found in a natural sample.

Curation

The location of the main mass of the meteorite is uncertain; it was last recorded being shipped to China, presumably for sale. Small samples are held at the

University of Arizona The University of Arizona (Arizona, U of A, UArizona, or UA) is a public land-grant research university in Tucson, Arizona. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, it was the first university in the Arizona Territory. T ...

, the University of Alberta, and

UC Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

References

External links

Entry for El Ali
in the Meteoritical Bulletin * J.T. Wasson and G. W Kalleymeyn
the IAB iron-meteorite complex: A group, five subgroups, numerous grouplets, closely related, mainly formed by crystal segregation in rapidly cooling melts

Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta ''Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta'' (GCA, for, , Latin, Geochemical and Cosmochemical Journal) is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Elsevier. It was established in 1950 and is sponsored by the Geochemical Society and the Me ...

, Volume 66, Issue 13, 1 July 2002, Pages 2445-2473 {{Authority control Meteorites by name