Are there minerals found only in meteorites?
Yes. Hundreds of minerals were first discovered in meteorites, and some, such as oldhamite and schreibersite, are extremely rare or unknown in Earth's crust.
Meteorites formed in conditions very different from Earth's surface: with little oxygen or water, at extreme temperatures in the young Solar System, or under sudden enormous pressure during impacts. As a result, they contain minerals rarely or never formed naturally on Earth.
Low-oxygen minerals. In enstatite chondrites and aubrites, oxygen was so scarce that metals formed sulfides and other compounds instead of oxides. Examples include oldhamite, a calcium sulfide; niningerite, a magnesium sulfide; and sinoite, a silicon oxynitride.
Metal compounds. Schreibersite, an iron-nickel phosphide, is common in iron meteorites but almost absent from Earth's crust except where lightning or burning coal creates similar conditions. Cohenite and haxonite are iron-nickel carbides.
High-temperature minerals. CAIs contain minerals such as hibonite and minerals with unusual titanium contents, condensed from hot gas.
High-pressure minerals. Impacts created minerals such as ringwoodite, wadsleyite, majorite, akimotoite and bridgmanite. These are thought to exist deep inside Earth's mantle, but the first natural samples came from meteorites.
New discoveries. New minerals are still being found. Several hundred mineral species have been described from meteorites, many first identified there. Some, such as tissintite from the Tissint Martian meteorite, and minerals from the El Ali iron meteorite in Somalia announced in 2022, such as elaliite and elkinstantonite, are named after their meteorites or people.
These minerals provide clues to the conditions where meteorites formed and help scientists understand processes that cannot be observed directly.