Rare Moon Mineral Found On Earth

sciencehabit writes "A mineral previously known only from moon rocks and lunar meteorites has now been found on Earth. Researchers discovered the substance — dubbed tranquillityite after the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon in July 1969— at six sites in Western Australia (abstract). The mineral occurs only in minuscule amounts and has no economic value, but scientists say it could be used for age-dating the rocks in which it occurs."

Comments

Rare and of no economic value, huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds just like the occasional pearl of wisdom that my brother might offer.

Re:Rare and of no economic value, huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds just like the occasional pearl of wisdom that my brother might offer.

I think the point was that it can't be used for anything.. it's not an energy source or something that can be systhesized into super heat resistant jock straps or taken for depression.. hence no economic value. Still valuable, but valuable like a collectible, not valuable like unobtanium.

Re:Rare and of no economic value, huh?

[gmhowell]

I think the point was that it can't be used for anything

Just like my brother's advice. Occasionally, he comes up with something that seems insightful, but it's still totally worthless.

Let me guess, your brother is Bennett?

Missing Moon Rocks?

[monzie]

Maybe the people who stole the moon rocks finally decided to scatter them at remote places and run away.

It's called "Cheese".

[Anonymous Coward]

Most earthly deposits are found in the state of Minnesota and the country of Switzerland.

Collision?

[Janek Kozicki]

I wonder if this has anything to do with the theory that Moon was created due to a big collision of Earth with some other celestial body. This theory however is supported by reasoning that in general Moon and Earth have roughly similar composition. Then why tranquillityite is mostly on the Moon, and not Earth. Maybe the general geographical location of this material on Earth (Australia, you say?) would help in reconstructing the collision event, or maybe would lead to conclusion that the collision theory was wrong. Whatever the outcome, we are going to learn something.

Re:Collision?

[polymeris]

This is just conjecture, but TFA says Tranquilliyite metamorphes readly to other minerals. The moon, not having plate tectonics, lacks a major source of metamorphism, hence is more likely to keep those minerals in their igneous state.
On the earth, OTOH, by both a lot of metamorphic (tectonics, vulcanism,...) and sedimentary (wind, water, ice,...) agents, the rare Tranquillityite that formed was swiftly converted to other minerals.

As said, this is all just a guess. May be completely wrong.

Re:No Value?

[Fluffeh]

How is there no economic value? Isn't this essentially moon rock?

Moon rocks aren't valuable because they have some special property, they aren't valuable because of exceptional heat resistance or because they repell gravity. They are so valuable because of their scarcity here on earth. People who want to study them only have a very limited supply, short of going up to the moon again and getting more - which is of course inhibitively expensive.

The moon rocks (and the ones found in WA now) are just basalt, a rather un-exciting hard stone made from magma cooling rapidly. Now, the exact conditions that take place make the basic elements within them form into a number of interesting compounds. So, like silica is the main ingredient in sand, clay and quartz, they are all unique and formed through different conditions.

The moon rocks when first analyzed contained three previously unknown compounds. Armalcolite, pyroxferroite and tranquillityite. The first two have since then been discovered on earth, but the third remained elusive until now, when small deposits have been found. As I said before, there isn't anything super special about this compound, it's just that it hasn't ever been found naturally formed on earth till now.

Re:No Value?

[GumphMaster]

No, it is an Earth mineral that takes the same form as a mineral found in greater abundance on the Moon. The paper does not suggest that the mineral came from the Moon.

Re:Er, Wisconsin, not Minnesota...

[Baloroth]

So shoot me, I don't live in the US.

Minnesota isn't Texas. We don't shoot people here, we prefer to kill them by waiting for an eternity at a stop-sign waving them through even though we have the right of way.

Re:Er, Wisconsin, not Minnesota...

[tgd]

Then stop telling jokes about us.

Jerk.

Why is it that we non-USians know more about your country than many of you? When you turn 5 (mentally), get someone to explain how dimwitted your comment is and how much you have portrayed your ignorance.

Now, go back to your trailer and your cousin-wife, dumbass.

Hey, don't knock trailer-trash cousin-wives -- they can be all kinds of hot and dirty.

Confused

[AndrewStephens]

So the moon contains rare earth elements, and now we have rare moon minerals on Earth. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MINDS, EARTH/MOON SYSTEM!

Re:They also found other evidence on the moon

[Whiteox]

It's little talked about, but they found convincing evidence that the cow really did jump over the moon.

That's pure lunacy.