Monday 4 July 2022 04:45 PM Scientists decipher the unique origins of Earth's minerals in landmark study trends now
Scientists have unlocked the mysterious origins of Earth's minerals and detailed their diverse formation over billions of years, finding evidence for the role of water and rare elements in their formation, as well as 297 that pre-date our planet's birth.
Nature created 40 percent of Earth's 5,659 recognized mineral species and in some instances used more than 15 unique recipes to produce their crystal structure and chemical composition.
The scientists found that water played a dominant role in the formation of over 80 percent of mineral species and that 41 rare Earth elements - including arsenic, cadmium, gold, mercury, silver, titanium, zinc, uranium and tungsten - are essential components of about 2,400 of the planet's minerals.
Nature has used 21 different ways over the last 4.5 billion years to create pyrite, also known as fool’s gold, he mineral world’s champion of diverse origins.
'This work fundamentally changes our view of the diversity of minerals on the planet,' says Dr. Robert Hazen, co-author of the study and a staff scientist with the Earth and Planets Laboratory, Carnegie Institution for Science, in Washington DC, in a statement.
Nine of the 5,659 recognized mineral species surveyed by scientists came into being via 15 or more different physical, chemical and/or biological processes - which included 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.
Scientists found that pyrite, known as fool's gold, has been formed in 21 different ways, making it the champion of diverse origins.
Pyrite can form at high and low temperatures, with and without water, with the assistance of microbes and also in harsh environments where life plays no role at all.
In contrast, diamonds 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.
'Minerals can be key to reconstructing the entire ‘past life’ and predicting the "future life" of Earth,' researcher say. Pictured above is a stunning example from Alberta, Canada of a biomineral -- an intersection of minerals and life
'The remarkable work of Hazen and Morrison provides a potential way to predictably discover possible minerals in nature,' Anhuai Lu, president of the Mineralogical Association and professor at Peking University's School of Earth and Space Sciences in Beijing, China,
