Where it forms, where it's found
- Geological setting
Shock melted Martian meteorite (the Tissint Martian meteorite).
- Type locality
- Tissint Martian meteorite
- Tata Cercle
- Tata Province
- Souss-Massa Region
- Morocco
29.4819°, -7.6108°
Physical
- Transparency
- Translucent
- Colour
- Bluish-green
- Density
- 4.135 g/cm³
Crystallography
- Cell parameters
- a = 8.1629(7) Å
- Z
- 8
- Type-locality form
5–20 μm polycrystalline aggregates consisting of submicron-sized crystals of 50–400 nm in diameter with grain size generally increasing towards the melt pocket.
- Comment
Fd-3m
Chemical composition
Synonyms
- Ahrensiet
- Ahrensitt
- IMA2013-028
- UM2002-44-SiO:FeMg
In other languages
- German
- Ahrensit · IMA 2013-028
- Italian
- ahrensite
Classification
9.AC
- 9SilicatesClass
- 9.ANesosilicatesDivision
- 9.ACNesosilicates without additional anions; cations in octahedral [6] coordinationGroup
- 9.ACAhrensiteSpecies
Group, growth & confusion
Literature, links & citation
- 2013Williams, P. A., Hatert, F., Pasero, M., Mills, S. J. (2013) New minerals and nomenclature modifications approved in 2013. CNMNC Newsletter No 16. Mineralogical Magazine, 77 (6) 2695-2709 doi:10.1180/minmag.2013.077.6.01DOI: 10.1180/minmag.2013.077.6.01
- 2014Ma, C., Tschauner, O., Liu, Y., Beckett, J.R., Rossman, G.R., Zuravlev, K., Prakapenka, V., Dera, P., Sinogeikin, S., Smith, J., Taylor, L.A. (2014) Discovery of Ahrensite gamma-Fe2SiO4 and Tissintite (Ca, Na, □) AlSi2O6: Two New High Pressure Minerals from the Tissint Martian Meteorite. 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
- 2014Ma, Chi, Tschauner, Oliver, Beckett, John R., Liu, Yang, Rossman, George R., Zuravlev, Kirill, Prakapenka, Vitali, Dera, Przemyslaw, Sinogeikin, Stanislav, Smith, Jesse, Taylor, Lawrence A. (2014) First New Minerals from Mars: Discovery of Ahrensite γ-Fe2SiO4 and Tissintite (Ca,Na,□)AlSi2O6, Two High Pressure Phases from the Tissint Martian Meteorite. Eighth International Conference on Mars.
- 2014Biagioni, C., Pasero, M. (2014) The systematics of the spinel-type minerals: An overview. American Mineralogist, 99 (7) 1254-1264 doi:10.2138/am.2014.4816DOI: 10.2138/am.2014.4816
- 2016Ma, C., Tschauner, O., Beckett, J.R., Liu, Y., Rossman, G.R., Sinogeikin, S.V., Smith, J.S., Taylor, L.A. (2016) Ahrensite, γ-Fe2SiO4, a new shock-metamorphic mineral from the Tissint meteorite: Implications for the Tissint shock event on Mars. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta: 184: 240-256.
@misc{mineral2026,
author = {Mineral Index editorial board},
title = {Ahrensite — Mineral Index},
year = {2026},
url = {https://mineralindex.org/minerals/ahrensite-43891},
note = {Accessed 2026-05-11}
}





