Keilite is an

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

magnesium Magnesium is a chemical element with the symbol Mg and atomic number 12. It is a shiny gray metal having a low density, low melting point and high chemical reactivity. Like the other alkaline earth metals (group 2 of the periodic ta ...

sulfide mineral The sulfide minerals are a class of minerals containing sulfide (S2−) or disulfide (S22−) as the major anion. Some sulfide minerals are economically important as metal ores. The sulfide class also includes the selenides, the tellurides, th ...

with the chemical formula that is found in

enstatite chondrite Enstatite chondrites (E-type chondrites) are a rare form of meteorite, rich in the mineral enstatite. Only about 200 E-Type chondrites are currently known, comprising about 2% of the chondrites that fall on Earth.Norton, O.R. and Chitwood, L.A. F ...

s. Keilite is the iron-dominant analog of

niningerite Niningerite is a magnesium-iron-manganese sulfide mineral with the chemical formula MgS that is found in enstatite chondrite meteorites. Niningerite is the magnesium-dominant analog of keilite. This mineral is named after Harvey H. Nininger. Se ...

. Keilite is named after

Klaus Keil Klaus is a German, Dutch and Scandinavian given name and surname. It originated as a short form of Nikolaus, a German form of the Greek given name Nicholas. Notable persons whose family name is Klaus *Billy Klaus (1928–2006), American basebal ...

(born 1934).

Occurrences

Examples of keilite occurrences are

s and the

Zakłodzie meteorite The Zakłodzie meteorite is a stony-iron meteorite found in Poland in 1998. Its mass is . It is composed predominantly from enstatite and meteoric iron. Currently classified as an ungrouped enstatite achondrite its classification is still an ongo ...

. It appears to be confined to impact-melt influenced enstatite chondrites that were

quenched In materials science, quenching is the rapid cooling of a workpiece in water, oil, polymer, air, or other fluids to obtain certain material properties. A type of heat treating, quenching prevents undesired low-temperature processes, such as phas ...

. There are also some meteorites interpreted as impact-melt

breccia Breccia () is a rock composed of large angular broken fragments of minerals or rocks cemented together by a fine-grained matrix. The word has its origins in the Italian language, in which it means "rubble". A breccia may have a variety of di ...

s that don't contain keilite. This is explained as a deeper burial after impact, which slowed cooling and enabled retrograde reactions (diapthoresis) to take place.

References

Galena group Iron(II) minerals Magnesium minerals Cubic minerals Minerals in space group 225 {{sulfide-mineral-stub