Elaliite is a mineral with formula (or ) that was first synthesized in a laboratory in the 1980s and later identified in natural material in 2022 at which time the official mineral designation was given. The mineral is

orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic lattices result from stretching a cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, resulting in a rectangular prism with a r ...

, with space group Cmmm (space group 65).

History

Elaliite was first identified in nature by 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 ...

who were given a 70 gram piece of the 15-ton El Ali meteorite that came to the attention of the scientific community in 2020. Elaliite was named after the

El Ali El Ali ( so, Ceel Cali, ar, عيل علي, ʿAyl ʿAliyy) is a District in the central Hiran region of Somalia. El Ali has a population of around 500'000 inhabitants. The broader El Ali District has a total population of 543,345 residents. El Al ...

district in Somalia where the meteorite was found. The mineral was identified by Andrew Locock who is employed by the university as the head of its electron microprobe laboratory, and classified by geologist Chris Herd. Locock also identified the first natural specimen of elkinstantonite in the same sample. Synthetic versions of elaliite were produced in a French laboratory in the 1980s but could not be categorised as a ''

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 nature. The future of the meteorite is uncertain as it has been shipped to China presumably for sale.

References

{{Authority control Iron(II,III) minerals Meteorite minerals Minerals in space group 65