- A Canadian student at the University of Alberta have unearthed a new mineral from a volcanic site in South Africa known as the Koffiefontein pipe.
- According to the study, published in the journal American Mineralogist, the newfound mineral has been named “goldschmidtite” in honor of acclaimed geochemist Victor Moritz Goldschmidt.
- It was found inside a diamond .
- According to National Geographic, the entire mantle is about 1,802 miles (2,900 km) thick,which makes the layer’s lowermost regions difficult for scientists to study.
- The intense pressure and heat in the upper mantle transform humble carbon deposits into sparkling diamonds; the rocks trap other mantle minerals in their structures and can be pushed to the planet surface by underground volcanic eruptions. By analyzing mineral inclusions in the diamonds, scientists can take a peek at chemical processes that occur far beneath the crust.
About Goldschmidt
- According to Nicole Meyer, the graduate student in the Diamond Exploration Research and Training School that discovered the rock, it has an unusual chemical signature for a mineral from Earth’s mantle.
- Goldschmidtite has high concentrations of niobium, potassium and the rare-earth elements lanthanum and cerium, whereas the rest of the mantle is dominated by other elements, such as magnesium and iron.
- Potassium and niobium make up most of the mineral, meaning the relatively rare elements were brought together and concentrated to form the unusual substance, despite other nearby elements being more abundan.
- It is a dark green, opaque mineral that they estimated was forged about 105 miles (170 kilometers) underground.
