Nazarovite, Ni12P5, a new terrestrial and meteoritic mineral structurally related to
nickelphosphide, Ni3P
^1,2Sergey N. Britvin,¹Mikhail N. Murashko,¹Maria G. Krzhizhanovskaya,¹Oleg S. Vereshchagin,³Yevgeny Vapnik,⁴Vladimir V. Shilovskikh,⁵Maksim S. Lozhkin,⁶Edita V. Obolonskaya
American Mineralogist 107, 1946-1951 Link to Article [http://www.minsocam.org/msa/ammin/toc/2022/Abstracts/AM107P1946.pdf]
¹Institute of Earth Sciences, St. Petersburg State University, Universitetskaya Nab. 7/9, 199034 St. Petersburg, Russia
²Kola Science Center, Russian Academy of Sciences, Fersman Str. 14, 184200 Apatity, Russia
³Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, P.O.B. 653, Beer-Sheva 84105, Israel
⁴Centre for Geo-Environmental Research and Modeling, St. Petersburg State University, Ulyanovskaya ul. 1, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia
⁵Nanophotonics Resource Centre, St. Petersburg State University, Ulyanovskaya ul. 1, 198504 St. Petersburg, Russia
⁶The Mining Museum, Saint Petersburg Mining University, 2, 21st Line, 199106 St. Petersburg, Russia
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

Nazarovite, Ni12P5, is a new natural phosphide discovered on Earth and in meteorites. Terrestrial
nazarovite originates from phosphide assemblages confined to pyrometamorphic suite of the Hatrurim
Formation (the Mottled Zone), the Dead Sea basin, Negev desert, Israel. Meteoritic nazarovite was
identified among Ni-rich phosphide precipitates extracted from the Marjalahti meteorite (main group
pallasite). Terrestrial mineral occurs as micrometer-sized lamella intergrown with transjordanite (Ni2P).
Meteoritic nazarovite forms chisel-like crystals up to 8 μm long. The mineral is tetragonal, space
group I4/m. The unit-cell parameters of terrestrial and meteoritic material, respectively: a 8.640(1)
and 8.6543(3), c 5.071(3), and 5.0665(2) Å, V 378.5(2), and 379.47(3) Å3, Z = 2. The crystal structure
of terrestrial nazarovite was solved and refined on the basis of X-ray single-crystal data (R1 = 0.0516),
whereas the structure of meteoritic mineral was refined by the Rietveld method using an X-ray powder
diffraction profile (RB = 0.22%). The mineral is structurally similar to phosphides of schreibersite–
nickelphosphide join, Fe3P-Ni3P. Chemical composition of nazarovite (terrestrial/meteoritic, electron
microprobe, wt%): Ni 81.87/78.59, Fe <0.2/4.10; Co <0.2/0.07, P 18.16/17.91, total 100.03/100.67, leading to the empirical formula Ni11.97P5.03 and (Ni11.43Fe0.63Co0.01)12.07P4.94, based on 17 atoms per for- mula unit. Nazarovite formation in nature, both on Earth and in meteorites, is related to the processes of Fe/Ni fractionation in solid state, at temperatures below 1100 °C.

¹Ioannis Baziotis,¹Stamatios Xydous¹Angeliki Papoutsa,²Jinping Hu,²Chi Ma,³Stephan Klemme,³Jasper Berndt,⁴Ludovic Ferrière,^5,6Razvan Caracas,²Paul D. Asimow
American Mineralogist 107, 1868-1977Link to Article [http://www.minsocam.org/msa/ammin/toc/2022/Abstracts/AM107P1868.pdf]
¹Agricultural University of Athens, Natural Resources Management and Agricultural Engineering, Laboratory of Mineralogy and Geology, Iera Odos 75, 11855, Athens, Greece
²California Institute of Technology, Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Pasadena, California 91125, U.S.A.
³Westfälische Wilhelms‑Univ. Münster, Institut für Mineralogie, Correnstrasse 24, 48149 Münster, Germany
⁴Natural History Museum, Burgring 7, A‑1010, Vienna, Austria
⁵CNRS, Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Laboratoire de Géologie de Lyon LGLTPE UMR5276, Centre Blaise Pascal,46 allée d’Italie Lyon 69364, France
⁶The Center for Earth Evolution and Dynamics (CEED), University of Oslo, Blindern, Oslo, Norway
Copyright: The Mineralogical Society of America

Jadeite is frequently reported in shocked meteorites, displaying a variety of textures and grain sizes
that suggest formation by either solid‑state transformation or by crystallization from a melt. Some‑
times, jadeite has been identified solely on the basis of Raman spectra. Here we argue that additional
characterization is needed to confidently identify jadeite and distinguish it from related species. Based
on chemical and spectral analysis of three new occurrences, complemented by first-principles calcula‑
tions, we show that related pyroxenes in the chemical space (Na)M2(Al)M1(Si2)TO6–(Ca)M2(Al)M1(AlSi)
TO6–()M2(Si)M1(Si2)TO6 with up to 2.25 atoms Si per formula unit have spectral features similar to
jadeite. However, their distinct stability fields (if any) and synthesis pathways, considered together
with textural constraints, have different implications for precursor phases and estimates of impactor
size, encounter velocity, and crater diameter. A reassessment of reported jadeite occurrences casts a
new light on many previous conclusions about the shock histories preserved in particular meteorites