Capital Wired

Keeps You Updated

Saturday, April 10, 2021
Log in
  • Headlines
  • Business
  • Health
  • Tech & Science
  • Sports
  • World
  • US
  • Latest News
    • How To Make Your Own Home-Brewed Morphine
    • Using Mouthwash Too Often Puts You at Risk of Obesity and Diabetes
    • Walmart to Solve its Supply Chain Issues and Further Cut Down on Costs
    • The World’s Most Expensive Christmas Decorations
    • Netflix Hopes to Balance Data Limit With Great Video Quality
    • Joji Morishita says Japan Will Resume Whaling
    • The Most Beloved Plastic Surgeries Among Americans
    • Skype for Web Allows Non-Users to Take Part In Its Online Chats

Pages

  • About Capital Wired
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Reprint & Licensing
  • Staff
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Here’s Why Your Brain Keeps Worrying about Everything June 29, 2018
  • Don’t Throw That Sunscreen after Summer Is Up June 29, 2018
  • Analysts: Currency War between U.S. and China Might Be Looming June 28, 2018
  • Starbucks Rival The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Opening 100 Shops June 27, 2018
  • Study Finds We Are Alone in the Universe June 26, 2018
  • Restaurant Owner Not Sorry for Booting Sarah Sanders June 26, 2018
  • Beware of the Hidden Salt in Your Food! June 25, 2018

Why Rare Minerals Are Considered To Be The New Diamonds

February 16, 2016 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow
Oppenheimer Diamond Collection# 6513. Diamond in kimberlite matrix, 52.45 ct.

Each planet with the ability to support life has a unique fingerprint of rare minerals.

In their recently published study, scientists Robert Hazen and Jesse Ausubel divulge why rare minerals are considered to be the new diamonds.

Diamonds are, of course, ‘a girl’s best friend’ and the most precious thing a woman could receive due to its beauty and rarity. However, it seems like diamonds aren’t so rare anymore. In a paper published in the journal American Mineralogist, two experts made a list of 5,000 known minerals on earth and presented a system for classifying rarities of minerals on earth.

The authors of the article were Dr. Robert Hazen of Carnegie Institution, Washington D.C. and Professor Jesse Ausubel of the Rockefeller University, New York.  The two were able to conclude that the presence of various minerals on earth is related to our planet’s ability to support life. They estimated that around 2,550 out of 5,000 minerals are the rarest on earth.

The conclusion, however, is that each planet with the ability to support life has a unique fingerprint of rare minerals. It’s also very likely that planets such as Mercury and Mars have much simpler minerals because they cannot sustain life.

In regards to the new findings, Hazen affirms:

Life depends on minerals. Life could not have begun without some of the chemical properties that minerals provided at Earth’s beginning.

The results also show that the minerals are more rare than diamond, which can be found in more than 700 locations in our planet. Among the minerals they catalogued are Bernalite, Ulrichite, Olmiite, Hazenite and Fingerite.

Fingerite is among the rarest minerals they classified. Aside from being seen in just one area in the planet, Fingerite is made up of rare elements, vanadium and copper. These two elements should exist together and form under unique and specific conditions such as near active volcanoes.

On the other hand, Hazenite forms only when the phosphorus concentration in the lake reaches high levels. The microbes in the water have to start excreting hazenite from their cells in order to survive. The tiny, colorless crystals are essentially microbial ‘poop.’

The experts are making fun of this type of mineral: ‘Yes, it’s true – hazenite happens!’

The new catalogue of the rarest minerals on Earth allows scientists to measure how abundant these resources are and to identify the locations where they can be found. For those that can be used in industries, this can be helpful in identifying the characteristics and value of the minerals.

Conclusively, the Earth is full of hidden and rare wonders that are yet to be discovered – that’s for sure. It remains to be seen what new discoveries will be able to distinguish our planet from other planets.

Image Source: gia.edu.

Email, RSS Follow

Brian Galloway

Brian’s philosophy is pretty straightforward: easy living, wishful thinking, heavy criticizing. Despite the fact that he wouldn’t go as far as describe himself a conspirationist, Brian does take everything with a grain of sand. He loves following every lead when covering a story and mostly enjoys to cover politics and US news.

Filed Under: Tech & Science Tagged With: American Mineralogist, diamonds, Dr. Robert Hazen, Earth, experts, Fingerite, Hazenite, history, Life, mineralogists, mineralogy, minerals, new findings, origins, planet Earth, planets, Professor Jesse Ausubel, rare minerals

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Recent Articles

dc logo on black galaxy background

Ava DuVernay to Direct DC’s New Gods Adaptation

March 16, 2018 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

leonardo davinci's signature in black

Is DaVinci’s Record Breaking Painting Authentic?

November 20, 2017 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

stephen hawking

Stephen Hawking Makes Gloomy Prediction For Earth In A 100 Years

May 7, 2017 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

"Dwayne Johnson not dead"

Dwayne Johnson Died this Week or Not

January 19, 2016 By Jason Leathers 3 Comments

There Are At Least Three More Seasons of Game of Thrones To Go

July 31, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Homelessness Soars in L.A., Officials Pledge to House Everybody by 2016

May 12, 2015 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

FBI Releases National Report on Slain Police Officers, Figures are Alarming

May 12, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

New York Nuclear Plant Partially Shut Down due to Hudson Oil Slick

May 11, 2015 By Jason Leathers 2 Comments

Obama Draws Heat from Democrats over Asia Trade Deal

May 9, 2015 By Rebecca McGhee Leave a Comment

Florida Governor Changes Stance on Obamacare Once More, Budget on Hold

May 9, 2015 By Brian Galloway Leave a Comment

Secret Service to add an Extra Layer of Spikes to White House Fence

May 8, 2015 By Chen Lai Leave a Comment

Police Arrested Suspect in death of Student who tried to Sell Car on Craigslist

May 8, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen 1 Comment

AccuWeather.com: 2015 Atlantic Tropical Storm Season is Officially Open

May 7, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen Leave a Comment

Illinois Student Found Dead after Trying to Sell his Car on Craigslist

May 7, 2015 By Deborah Nielsen 2 Comments

Related Articles

  • ET movie

    Study Finds We Are Alone in the Universe

    Jun 26, 2018
  • Sarah Huckabee Sanders

    Restaurant Owner Not Sorry for Booting Sarah Sanders

    Jun 26, 2018
  • New Type of Photosynthesis Spotted in Blue-Green Algae

    Jun 20, 2018
  • Tropical fish and coral reef

    Coral Reefs Save Us from Flooding (Study)

    Jun 14, 2018
  • NASA astronaut on the moon

    NASA Astronauts Warmed Up the Moon in the 1970s

    Jun 12, 2018
  • Antarctic landscape

    Antarctica Experiencing Routine Earthquakes Like Any Other Continent

    Jun 5, 2018
  • SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch

    SpaceX Launches Powerful Communications Satellite into Orbit

    Jun 5, 2018
  • Planet Pluto

    Scientists Have New Theory About Pluto’s Formation

    May 30, 2018
  • The Milky Way

    NASA Uses Lasers to Re-Create Coldest Spot in the Universe

    May 22, 2018
  • Plastic bottle on a sand beach

    Earth Has Had 33 Years of Above-than-Average Temperatures

    May 21, 2018

Categories

  • Business
  • Headlines
  • Health
  • Sports
  • Tech & Science
  • US
  • World

Copyright © 2021 capitalwired.com

About · Privacy Policy · Terms of Use · Contact