Achrondite (ungrouped)
Adrar, Algeria
This uniquely beautiful meteorite, known as Erg Chech 002 (or EC 002) surfaced in the Sahara in 2020, and when sliced in half revealed a treasure trove of green crystals that must have formed in a planetary-sized body with very slow cooling of the crust over 100,000+ years. Given the Earth-like preponderance of silicon dioxide crystals (58% by volume), some speculated that it might be the first meteorite knocked loose from the Earth itself, an emissary from its early formation. Subsequent study determined it to be older still—an ancient survivor from the crust of a lost cousin planet that formed 23 million years before Earth itself.
In March 2021, New Scientist reported on the discovery under the headline '4.6-billion-year-old meteorite is the oldest volcanic rock ever found': 'The oldest volcanic rock we have ever discovered may help us understand the building blocks of planets. The meteorite, which was discovered in the Sahara desert in 2020, dates from just 2 million years after the formation of the solar system - making it more than a million years older than the previous record-holder.
'I have been working on meteorites for more than 20 years now, and this is possibly the most fantastic new meteorite I have ever seen,' says Jean-Alix Barrat at the University of Western Brittany in France…It is a type of rock called andesite that, on Earth, is found mostly in subduction zones—areas where tectonic plates have collided and one has been pushed beneath the other—and rarely in meteorites. Most of the meteorites discovered on Earth are made of another kind of volcanic rock called basalt. Analysis of the chemical make-up of the new meteorite showed that it was once molten, and solidified nearly 4.6 billion years ago.
This means it was probably part of the crust of an ancient protoplanet that broke up early in the solar system’s past. No known asteroid looks like EC 002, which indicates that almost none of these relics still exist: nearly all of them have either crashed together to form planets or been smashed to bits.
'When you go close to the beginning of the solar system, it’s more and more complicated to get samples,' says Barrat. 'We probably will not find another sample older than this one.'
The researchers’ analysis showed that it took the magma that makes up EC 002 at least 100,000 years to cool and solidify after it melted, which may indicate that it was unusually viscous. Further study of this artefact from the early solar system could help us understand how the planets, including Earth, formed.'
This central slice of the meteorite measures 129 mm x 100 mm x 1 mm, weights 47 grams, and is housed in a custom porthole-style airtight frame.
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