Scientists at St. Petersburg State University and researchers from Germany, the USA and Italy discovered the terrestrial alobdonite (Fe, Ni) 2P. So far, this mineral is known only from meteorites.

The discovery was made on June 23, according to a press service at St. Petersburg State University, during a planned study of phosphides in the historic region of the South Levant, near the Dead Sea. The research results were published in the American Mineralogist.

Alabogdonite was first recorded in the Onello iron meteorite in the early 2000s as a gold alloy deposit in the Bolshoi Dolguchan River in Yakutia. It is named after Bogdanova, not the crystallographer. In terms of chemistry, it belongs to phosphides – minerals that contain phosphorus under negative oxidation conditions. The current discovery by St. Petersburg scientists is the first confirmation of the presence of alobdonite on Earth.

Terrestrial alobdonite was formed as a result of the transition from baringrite to another mineral, and as a result of quenching was preserved under normal conditions – an instantaneous decrease in temperature and pressure.

Terrestrial alobdonite could be formed at pressures of more than 25 gigapascals of 250,000 atmospheres. At high altitudes of more than 500 km, such high pressures can be achieved in the face of catastrophic meteorites and earthquakes. However, in the area where natural cyclophosphates were recently discovered, terrestrial alobdonite was found along the surface rocks of the Dead Sea Basin in Israel, ”explains Sergey Britwin, a professor of crystallography at St. Petersburg State University.