Bridgmanite: Official Name for the mineral making 38% of the earth
Bridgmanite: Official Name for the mineral making 38% of the earth
What’s in a name, the bard once wrote, but official nomenclature can mean a lot. The earth’s most abundant mineral has finally received its official name-Bridgmanite. This mineral’s name was official coined following the extraction of an examinable sample from the meteorite. This mineral has been named so by the American geologists.
Why It Took So Long to Name Bridgmanite
This abundant mineral has remained nameless as large enough samples secreted in the lower mantle of the earth had not been recovered till now. As per the rules of the International Mineralogical Association, a formal name cannot be bestowed on a mineral unless the specimen has been found and examined well first hand.
This mineral earned a name after a team of American geologists proved successful in extracting a sample which was big enough for analysis from a meteorite. The new name for the mineral was in honour and remembrance of Percy Bridgman who was a pioneer in the use of high pressure experiments for better understanding the manner in which geological formations came about.
About the Mineral Bridgmanite
Bridgmanite constitutes 70% of the lower mantle of the earth and 38% of its total volume. It comprises high density magnesium iron silicate. Therefore, accessing this mineral was hard as the lower mantle starts at 670 km under the crust of the earth.
The research geologists observed the meteorite that had fallen inside Australia in the year 1879 and found what they were looking for. The researchers also noted the sample contained more sodium and ferric acid than expected.
This discovery will aid future research in the field as well and provide clues regarding the manner of reaction when celestial bodies are on a collision course. The research paper was published in a journal entitled Science.
The slice of the meteorite analysed by the researchers found that the crash had subjected it to temperatures of around 2100 degree celsius and pressures of around 240,000 times sea level. A tiny 20 to 30 micrometer wide blob of mineral was discovered in this sample.
About Percy Bridgman
Percy Bridgman is the recipient of a 1946 Nobel prize for physics. He was a physicist who pioneered the analysis of minerals plus other materials under high pressure. His stellar work in this field pioneered further research in this area.
Conclusion
This mineral is known for being the most abundant one on earth yet the naming proved elusive. Thanks to an ancient meteorite, Bridgmanite has finally joined the ranks of minerals with a name. This is a major step forward for mineralogical classification.
