Geologists have just discovered alien mineral forms at a 60 million-year-old meteorite impact location in Scotland.
Alien Minerals
While looking through a collection of ancient lava on the small Isle of Skye located in Scotland, a team of Geologists have discovered a collection of alien mineral forms that have never been seen before on earth. This strange rock left scientists scratching their head, as the way in which the minerals were situated was completely different from previous knowledge.
Simon Drake and his colleague Andy Beard of Birkbeck, University of London, explained the process of discovering the Alien mineral forms’ extraterrestrial origins in an interview with Newsweek.
“When we looked at the rock to start off with, it was very, very strange indeed…It looked completely out of place… We were staggered…The most compelling evidence [of the rock’s extraterrestrial origins] really is the presence of vanadium-rich and niobium-rich osbornite. Neither of these have ever been found on Earth before. We have these minerals totally enclosed in native iron, which itself is not of this planet.”
The research was published in Geology, with Drake as the lead author. Adding to the evidence that the rock was originally part of a meteor was the discovery of reidite in their samples.
“If you have a meteorite impact at extreme pressures, the mineral zircon will convert to a much denser mineral…This instantaneous conversion from zircon to reidite has only ever been discovered on Earth at meteor impact sites.”
In a previous expedition back in 2004, NASA’s spacecraft Stardust found vanadium-rich obsonite in samples collected of space dust floating behind the Wild 2 comet, which is yet another indication that these alien mineral forms are not of this world.
The Isle of Skye
There’s actually evidence that the creation of the Isle of Skye was caused by a meteorite impact. While there was definitely some volcanic activity before this impact, the meteorite crashing into earth may have triggered an extreme acceleration in the speed and severity of volcanic eruptions. There’s evidence that modern-day Iceland was entirely created by a period of volcanic activity, and some scientists believe that a meteor impact was responsible for sparking the evolution of life here on earth.
The Isle of Skye is fascinating and important for geological research, and this discovery adds further credence to the fact that a meteorite impact occurred and may have started the chain of events that led to the creation of new land and life.
“Whilst we can’t say that the volcanological evolution of Skye was started by a meteorite, we think it was definitely a driver for that impact,” said Drake.
Drake and his team are now looking towards a larger geographic area surrounding the Isle in hopes of using this new discovery to learn about volcanic activity and the origins of the region. Further research and exploration is required to truly understand more about the origins of the Isle of Skye — and perhaps even the origins of the world in general.
