[meteorite-list] New Mineral, Hapkeite, Discovered in Lunar Meteorite

[Ron Baalke]

http://abclocal.go.com/wpvi/news/42604-newmineral.html

New Mineral, "Hapkeite", Discovered
Associated Press
April 26, 2004

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A chunk of the moon that landed on Earth as a 
meteorite contains a new mineral, which scientists have named 
after a researcher who years ago predicted the unusual process 
that formed the material.

Grains of the material, made of iron and silicon, were found in 
pieces of a meteorite that was discovered in Oman on the Saudi 
peninsula, said Lawrence A. Taylor of the University of Tennessee, 
a member of the research team that reported the find.

The process that led to the material's formation on the moon "is 
much different than anything we can imagine on Earth," Taylor 
explained.

Small meteorites that would burn up in an atmosphere like Earth's 
can crash into the moon because of its lack of an atmosphere. The 
mineral was found in a piece of the moon that had been large 
enough to make it through the Earth's atmosphere without being 
destroyed.

When that happens, Taylor explained, the impact creates heat that 
melts some of the rocks and forms a vapor that is deposited on 
nearby materials.

The process and discovery of the new material is reported in 
this week's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of 
Sciences.

Some iron-silicon minerals form on Earth, sometimes as a result 
of lightning strikes, but new mineral is a different combination, 
Taylor said. Hapkeite has the chemical formula Fe2Si, indicating 
the presence of two atoms of iron to one of silicon.

The researchers named the new mineral hapkeite after Bruce Hapke 
of the University of Pittsburgh, who 30 years ago predicted the 
process that forms this mineral.

"I told them so," said an amused Hapke, who added: "It's quite 
an honor."

He said he developed the theory to explain weathering of 
surface materials in space, a process that darkens the moon's 
surface.

Weathering on Earth creates soil through the action of water, 
oxygen and organic processes. That can't happen on a place 
without water or an atmosphere, so the darkening and breaking 
down of the surface rocks had to be explained in another way.

Benton C. Clark, a weathering expert at Lockheed Martin Corp., 
said the process of forming the moon mineral seems plausible, 
but stressed that it needs to be defined as "space weathering," 
which would be unlike weathering on Earth.

"Naming a mineral after the outstanding scientist Bruce Hapke 
is a fitting tribute," he said.

Robert Craddock, science adviser for the Smithsonian 
Institution's undersecretary for science, said the paper 
explains some of the spectral measurements researchers read 
when they study airless planets. Measurements of the spectrum 
of reflected light are used to help determine the presence of 
minerals.

The newly found mineral, he added, is one of a number of 
minerals predicted as possible a result of space weathering.