This mineral, named donwilhelmsite, is the first high-pressure mineral to be found in a lunar meteorite that has applications for terrestrial sediments. Mainly composed of calcium, aluminium, silicon, and oxygen atoms, donwilhelmsite was discovered within the lunar meteorite Oued Awlitis 001 found in Western Sahara.<\/p>\n
The meteorite is similar to Earth\u2019s rocks. In the ocean, at depths of around 460-700 km, the amount of pressure turns eroded sediment into denser mineral phases, including the newly discovered mineral donwilhelmsite. In the terrestrial rock cycle, donwilhelmsite is therefore an important agent for transporting continental crustal sediments through the transition zone of the Earth\u2019s mantle (460-700 km depth).<\/p>\n
The new mineral was named in honour of the lunar geologist Don E Wilhelms, an American scientist involved in landing site selection and data analyses of the Apollo space missions that brought to Earth the first rock samples from the Moon<\/a>. Part of the meteorite Oued Awlitis 001 is now on display at the Natural History Museum Vienna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"