Edscottite is an

iron carbide Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

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. ...

, with the formula Fe₅C₂. It was previously known to occur during

iron smelting Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a ch ...

, but in 2019 was identified as occurring in nature, but not naturally occurring on earth, when it was discovered in a

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 moon. When the original object en ...

. The source, the Wedderburn meteorite, was found in 1951 just outside

Wedderburn Wedderburn may refer to: People * Alexander Wedderburn (disambiguation) * Bill Wedderburn, Baron Wedderburn of Charlton (1927–2012), British politician and legal scholar * Charles F. Wedderburn (1892–1917), United States Navy officer * Da ...

in Australia, and is held in the

Museums Victoria Museums Victoria is an organisation which operates three major state-owned museums in Melbourne, Victoria: the Melbourne Museum, the Immigration Museum and Scienceworks Museum. It also manages the Royal Exhibition Building and a storage facil ...

collection. During a re-investigation of a section of the meteorite housed at the University of California, Los Angeles, Chi Ma and Alan Rubin verified the presence of a new mineral. They named it edscottite in honor of Edward (Ed) R. D. Scott of the University of Hawaii, USA, a pioneering cosmochemist.

References

{{Carbides Iron minerals Carbide minerals Meteorite minerals

Further reading

References