[2] Elkinstantonite was first identified in nature by scientists from the University of Alberta who were given a 70-gram piece of an ancient 15-ton El Ali meteorite that landed in Somalia and was first noticed by the international scientific community in 2020.
[3] Elkinstantonite was named after NASA scientist Lindy Elkins-Tanton.
[3] The mineral was identified by Andrew Locock who is employed by the university as the head of its electron microprobe laboratory,[4] and classified by geologist Chris Herd.
[5] Locock also identified the first natural specimen of elaliite in the same sample.
[6] Synthetic versions of elkinstantonite were produced in a French laboratory in the 1980s, but could not be categorised as a mineral until they were found in nature.