Carletonmooreite
A nickel silicide found in the metal of the Norton County aubrite.
Key facts
- Formula
- Ni3Si
- Family
- Phosphides, carbides, nitrides and silicides
- Crystal system
- Cubic
- First described
- the Norton County aubrite, 2018
Carletonmooreite was approved as a new mineral in 2018 from the Norton County aubrite, which fell in Kansas and Nebraska in 1948, and described in 2021. It is named after Carleton Moore, founding director of a major university meteorite centre in Arizona.
What it is
Carletonmooreite is a silicide: a compound of nickel with silicon rather than with oxygen. Silicon enters metal only under extremely oxygen-poor conditions, like those in which aubrites and enstatite chondrites formed.
Where it is found
It occurs as tiny grains in kamacite in the Norton County aubrite, together with perryite and other silicon-bearing metal phases.
How it is recognised
It is identified by electron backscatter diffraction and microprobe analysis.
Did you know?
Norton County is the largest aubrite fall known, with about a tonne recovered.
It is also the type meteorite for cronusite, schöllhornite and caswellsilverite.