The International Mineralogical Association recognise around 6,000 minerals , but scientists at the Carnegie Institution for Science have noted some of these can be take shape through alternative physical , chemical substance , and biological processes . enter each “ mineral metal money ” by each possible formation mental process , they identify 10,556 known “ mineral kinds ” .
By aggroup each mineral kind by its method acting and timing of organisation they provide an brainstorm into why the Earth is so much richer in mineral diversity than other know worlds , and how this has grown through its chronicle .
Professor Robert HazenandDr Shaunna Morrisonidentified 57 processes that act on available factor to produce the regalia of mineral we find around us , describing each and their frequency in the jounalAmerican Mineralogist . The lean includes the obvious , such as the products of lava and radioactive decomposition , but the authors draw distinction between being boiled and baked ( ie ready with and without pee ) . Even being expunge by lightning feature of speech , but perhaps the most surprising family is for mineral derived from pee or wench / bat droppings ( 72 example ) .
Opalized fossils like this ammonite are rare, but provide an example of how life creates minerals that could not exist in any other way. Image credit: ARKENSTONE/Rob Lavinsky
“ Each mineral specimen has a chronicle . Each tell a story . Each is a time space capsule that reveals Earth ’s past as nothing else can , ” Hazen said in astatement .
“ More than 80 pct of Earth ’s minerals were mediated by water , which is , therefore , fundamentally of import to mineral multifariousness on this planet . By extension , this excuse one of the key reasonableness why the Moon and Mercury and even Mars have far fewer mineral coinage than Earth , ” Hazen added .
The work was part funded by NASA because of the import it holds for interpreting the development of other worlds through the minerals we can determine there .
Pyrite, commonly known as fool’s gold can be formed through 21 types of processes on Earth or in space, more than any other mineral. Image credit: ARKENSTONE/Rob Lavinsky
Life has left its criminal record in the careen as well , not just in the pattern of fossils , but in mineral composition . “ One third of Earth ’s minerals could not have formed without biological science – shell and off-white and teeth , or microbes , for instance , or the full of life indirect role of biological science , such as by create an atomic number 8 - productive atmosphere that led to 2,000 mineral that would n’t have formed otherwise , ” Hazen said . Another sixth or so sometimes constitute from biological natural action , but also in other direction .
The adage about there being more than one way to scramble a cat might intimately be rephrased ( for many ground ) as there being more than one way to make a mineral . There are , for example , nine ways to ferment carbon copy into diamond , include in outer space and during asteroid impact .
Maximum flexibility goes to pyrite , better known as sap amber , which can be formed via 21 different path , both biologic and lifeless , but Hazen and Morrison identify nine minerals subject of form in at least 15 way . Almost 60 percent of the “ species ” have only one known geological formation process .
The first minerals were reign by 11 vulgar element , but afterwards , very rare ingredients contribute to the current diversity . Some 2,400 element admit at least one of 41 element whose combined copiousness is less than 5 parts per million ( i.e. 0.0005 percent ) of the Earth ’s crust .
Almost 300 of the minerals in the catalogue are think to be quondam than the Earth itself – 97 of these have only been found in meteorite , suggesting Earth lacks the capacity to shape them .
The most coarse fashion in which minerals are bring forth is through weathering or oxidation at or near the Earth ’s open , followed by deposition of minerals dissolve in volcanic hot water .
Humanity ’s influence is seeable as well , with more than 500 first appearance in the database from minerals resulting from mining – 234 from fires in ember mines alone . Materials deliberately made by humans , and not otherwise present on Earth , were excluded from the list , however .
In anaccompanying paperin the same journal , Hazen and Morrison , along with two co - source , propose that classify minerals by their timing and method of organisation offers considerable benefit . For example , they intimate one class could be minerals that have only be since theGreat Oxidation Eventchanged Earth ’s atmosphere and oceans , while another could be those that preceded the Earth becoming wet .
