An innovative new perspective on mineralogy, findings rank amongst the field’s most important in the last century. Scientists decipher and catalog the diverse origins of Earth's minerals; will inform models of life’s history, help find new minerals, habitable planets, and extraterrestrial life.
A newly completed 15-year study details the origins and diversity of every known mineral on Earth.
Pyrite formed in 21 ways — the most of any mineral; Diamonds formed in nine ways – from outer space to deep Earth “This work fundamentally changes our view of the diversity of minerals on the planet,” says Dr. Hazen, Staff Scientist with the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, Washington DC.
Of the 5,659 recognized mineral species surveyed by Hazen and colleagues, nine came into being via 15 or more different physical, chemical and/or biological processes — everything from near-instantaneous formation by lightning or meteor strikes, to changes caused by water-rock interactions or transformations at high pressures and temperature spanning hundreds of millions of years.
In all, minerals have come into being in one or more of 57 different ways, according to that paper and a sister paper published simultaneously by the same journal, “Lumping and splitting: toward a classification of mineral natural kinds,” co-authored by Drs. Hazen and Morrison in collaboration with mineralogists Sergey Krivovichev of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Robert Downs of the University of Arizona.
In earlier studies over more than a century, thousands of mineralogists worldwide have carefully documented almost 6,000 different “mineral species” based on their unique combinations of chemical composition and crystal structure. Dr. Hazen and colleagues took a different approach, emphasizing how and when each kind of mineral appeared through more than 4.5 billion years of Earth history.
Diamonds, for example, composed of carbon, have originated in at least nine ways, including condensation in the cooling atmospheres of old stars, during a meteorite impact, and under hot ultra-high-pressure deep within the Earth. The papers detail other considerations in the clustering and classification of minerals, such as the eon in which they formed. For example, Earth’s “Great Oxidation Event” about 2.3 billion years ago led new minerals to form at the planet’s near-surface.
Canada Latest News, Canada Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Minerals from Antarctica give clues to potentially habitable locations on MarsMinerals found in samples of material from Antarctica could give scientists a better understanding of the surface and subsurface environment of Mars.
Read more »
Curiosity Mars rover reveals evidence of changing climates on red planetNASA's Curiosity Mars rover found evidence of different climates on the planet occurring several billion years ago as it transitions to a mineral region.
Read more »
Study: Dwarf planet Ceres is an ocean world“It’s really kind of a smoking gun, because you would have expected it had gone away if it had been sitting there even close to the surface for millions of years.”
Read more »
Chinese posed as local Texans online to target rare earth producerChina conducted a sophisticated disinformation campaign against a company building a rare earth minerals facility in Texas for the Pentagon, according to the Pentagon and a cybersecurity firm.
Read more »
Long-Term Liquid Water – Required for Life – Could Exist on Planets That Are Very Different From EarthLiquid water is an important prerequisite for life to develop on a planet. As researchers report in a new study, liquid water could also exist for billions of years on planets that are very different from Earth. This calls our currently Earth-centered idea of potentially habitable planets into quest
Read more »
NASA Observatory Captures Stunning Solar Eclipse from SpaceThe Solar Dynamic Observatory captured this stunning photo of a partial solar eclipse that was only visible from its location in space.
Read more »