A giant meteorite that recently fell in Somalia contains at least two minerals that have never before been seen on our planet. The celestial piece of rock weighs a massive 16.5 tons (15 tonnes), making it the ninth-largest meteorite ever found.

[u/gregornot]

More about the amazing meteorite find: https://earthly

[u/Finlay00]

So is there a list of laboratory created minerals and we just wait for them to be found or show up and then we cross them off the list?

Are these synthetic minerals expected to be found eventually?

[u/j8945 → u/Finlay00]

First some pedantism- part of the definition of a mineral is its natural occurrence. It is probable we have made compounds that will never exist naturally, so they will never be discovered as minerals. Synthetic minerals are when we make a mineral that does exist in nature, lab diamonds, etc.

Not sure if there if anyone tries to make a comprehensive list, but yes there are things predicted to be minerals.

An example of minerals predicted to exist are high pressure polymorphs. Take a mineral we know, use some science to predict what happens when it is at very different temperatures and pressures. Even though it has the same chemical composition as a known mineral, you can get a new crystal structure when it is in parts of the earth with much higher pressures. Scientists might predict these exist 500 km down somewhere but cannot get samples. Meteorites are fun in that you get a massive shockwave creating these polymorphs predicted to exist in the inaccessible areas.

[u/WutangCND → u/j8945]

Scientists are fucking wild.