Tschaunerite
A dense iron titanium oxide formed from ulvöspinel in a shock-melt pocket in Shergotty.
Key facts
- Formula
- Fe2+(Fe2+Ti4+)O4
- Family
- High-pressure minerals
- Crystal system
- Orthorhombic
- First described
- the Shergotty Martian meteorite, 2017
Tschaunerite was approved as a new mineral in 2017 from the Shergotty shergottite, which fell in India in 1865. It is named after Oliver Tschauner, a German-American mineralogist who has helped identify many high-pressure minerals. It is known only from meteorites.
What it is
Tschaunerite has the composition of ulvöspinel, an iron titanium oxide of the spinel family, but a denser structure. It was found together with two other new iron titanium oxides, feiite and liuite, all formed from a single shocked grain of ulvöspinel.
Where it is found
It occurs in a transformed ulvöspinel grain in a shock-melt pocket in Shergotty, the first known shergottite. The grain reacted with the surrounding melt at pressures of roughly 20 to 25 gigapascals.
How it is recognised
It is identified with the electron microprobe and electron backscatter diffraction.
Did you know?
One grain in Shergotty gave three new minerals at once.
Shergotty fell more than 150 years ago, and new minerals are still being found in it.