Scientists Confirm The Discovery of a Mineral Never Before Seen in Nature

It was found along the side of a road in a remote Australian gold rush town. In the old days, Wedderburn was a hotspot for prospectors – it occasionally still is – but nobody there had ever seen a nugget quite like this one.

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Tau.Neutrino said:

Scientists Confirm The Discovery of a Mineral Never Before Seen in Nature

It was found along the side of a road in a remote Australian gold rush town. In the old days, Wedderburn was a hotspot for prospectors – it occasionally still is – but nobody there had ever seen a nugget quite like this one.

more..

> Since the Wedderburn meteorite’s spacey origins were first identified, the distinctive black-and-red rock has been examined by numerous research teams – to the extent that only about one-third of the original specimen still remains intact.

I approve of that. I wonder how much of the Apollo samples remain intact. Probably too much.

> Those analyses have revealed traces of gold and iron, along with rarer minerals such as kamacite, schreibersite, taenite, and troilite. Now we can add edscottite to that list. iron carbide mineral

That makes sense. I wonder if it cal slso be spotted on asteroid Psyche.

> “We have discovered 500,000 to 600,000 minerals in the lab, but fewer than 6,000 that nature’s done itself,”

So few?

New minerals are found from time-to-time.

I was at uni in 1990 when Wilkinsonite was reported by Morrie Duggan. Morrie came back to his Alma Mater to give a short talk and present a memento to Wilko, our Professor of Igneous Geology, just prior to publication (but after the paper had been accepted). I was in Wilko’s last class before retiring.

https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/msa/ammin/article-abstract/75/5-6/694/42391/wilkinsonite-na2fe42-fe23-si6o20-a-new-member-of?redirectedFrom=fulltext

https://www.mindat.org/min-4290.html

http://www.webmineral.com/data/Wilkinsonite.shtml#.XW21b-gzbIV