Perspective
GRANITES, LEUCOGRANITES, HIMALAYAN LEUCOGRANITES
THE QUEST FOR EXTRATERRESTRIAL CRATONS
Here I explore our Solar System’s rocky planetary bodies as possible Archean craton (AC) analogs. Why? If other bodies host AC like features, we might learn things about early Earth that we cannot learn from Earth itself. Typically, we look to Earth for planetary analogs. I propose the reverse—let us look to other planets for Earth analogs. Planets are likely most similar in their early histories. Earth developed plate tectonics, but this elegant global cooling process destroyed most of Earth’s early geological record. No other planets developed global plate tectonics and, therefore, might preserve records of early global processes that shed light on our own planet’s workings.
MINERALS FOR A CHANGING WORLD
By Nedal T. Nassar | December, 2023
The clean energy transition is essentially a shift from fossil fuels, including coal, natural gas, and petroleum, to nonfuel mineral commodities, such as tellurium, lithium, and rare earths. That is because clean energy technologies like solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles, and electric grid energy storage systems require significant quantities of these and other nonfuel mineral commodities—but it is, of course, much more than that. The clean energy transition is about trade and supply chains; manufacturing and jobs; resource nationalism and great powers competition. It is also about the environment and community relations; economic development and the circular economy; emerging technologies and intellectual property. As we race toward the middle of the 21st century, one would be hard pressed to identify a topic that is at the nexus of more consequential issues than this one.
WHOLE EARTH CONTROLS ON THE EVOLUTION OF LIFE
By Cin-Ty Lee | October, 2023
This issue’s theme is on the importance of large igneous provinces (LIPs) driving global environmental change. As discussed in this issue’s articles, these massive but short-lived magmatic events profoundly impacted the evolution of life through mass extinctions and, in some cases, changing the long-term climatic state of our planet. LIPs are a reminder that the whole Earth, from the core to the crust to the atmosphere, ocean, and life are interconnected, but more specifically, the dynamics of the Earth’s interior plays a key role in facilitating life. For life to exist, disequilibrium must exist. Disequilibrium gives rise to energy gradients. At the most basic level, life can be seen as merely a means of facilitating the flow of energy across these gradients. For example, life-sustaining energy can be accessed from redox potentials between reduced volcanic gases and the oceans and atmosphere. Temperature gradients in hydrothermal environments also provide life-giving energy. But for most of Earth’s history, the most important source of life-giving energy comes from the Sun, accessed through the biochemical reactions associated with photosynthetic organisms. From photosynthesis, the Sun’s energy is captured and stored in the form of reduced carbon, which is then distributed across the planet to sustain non-photosynthetic life, even in places where the Sun does not shine, e.g., the deep sea or in soils.
The Golden Age of Mineralogy: Reflections by Ima Medalists (Part II)
By Rodney C. Ewing, Gordon E. Brown, Jr., and Robert M. Hazen | December, 2022
The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) Medal of Excellence (www.imamineralogy.org/Medal.htm) was established in 2006 as a lifetime achievement award that recognizes the excellence and impact of one’s contribution to knowledge. Here, we present the second half of a twopart series featuring recipients of the IMA Medal of Excellence and their personal reflections and experience of the “Golden Age of Mineralogy.” The first half of this series was presented in Elements vol. 18, no. 3, with insightful passages composed by Distinguished Professor Emeritus Frank C. Hawthorne (University of Manitoba, Canada) and Professor Nikolay V. Sobolev (V.S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, Russia). This issue features passages written by Professor Rodney C. Ewing (Stanford University, USA), Professor Emeritus Gordon E. Brown, Jr. (Stanford University, USA), and Robert M. Hazen (Carnegie Institution for Science, USA).
ON THE PATH TO DECARBONISATION
By Andrew J. Stewart | October, 2022
In 2006, I ended my academic career as an experimental geochemist and transitioned to a role at the global technical centre for one of the world’s largest cement companies. I became an expert in the chemistry and mineralogy of the clinker and cement making processes. I spent much time in various places around the world troubleshooting factory issues, training teams, and working on novel cements and production methods.
WHY STUDY THE CASCADE ARC?
By Eugene Humphreys, Anita Grunder | August, 2022
The Cascade subduction zone (also known more generally as Cascadia) is but one of many subduction zones in the world. Why, then, is it so special and study worthy in the global scheme?
THE GOLDEN AGE OF MINERALOGY: REFLECTIONS BY IMA MEDALISTS
By Frank C. Hawthorne, Nikolay V. Sobolev | June, 2022
The International Mineralogical Association (IMA) was officially launched at its first general meeting in Madrid, in April of 1958. Electron microprobe analysis had then just been developed by the French physicist Raimond Castaing, and the first microbeam analyses of geological samples (less than 1 µg in weight!) were about to be published by him in collaboration with the Swedish mineralogist Kurt Fredriksson.
RADIOIODINE CONTAMINATION CAUSED BY THE FUKUSHIMA DAIICHI NUCLEAR POWER PLANT ACCIDENT
By Takeshi Ohno | February, 2022
The Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami happened on 11 March 2011, which caused the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (FDNPP) accident. The accident resulted in a substantial release of radio nuclides, including 131I, 134Cs, and 137Cs, into the atmosphere, causing significant environmental contamination. This was a particular issue in many parts of eastern Japan, especially in the Fukushima Prefecture (Yoshida and Takahashi 2012).
EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION OF CARBONATITE THOUGHTS
By Francesco Stoppa | October, 2021
During my doctoral studies, in the late 1980s, I realised that the Italian kamafugites (kalsilite melilitites) had to be related to carbonatite magmatism. I started a detailed study of the kama fugiticsites, and I explored remote areas deep in Italy’s Apennine mountains. When I found the Polino carbonatite, I put a few drops of acid on it, and the rock reacted. I have a vivid memory of my heart beating faster. I had found it! My fellow geologists were somewhat sceptical, but the late Professor Giorgio Marinelli (1922–1993) encouraged me and predicted many new carbonatite discoveries.
PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORY OF THE RAMAN EFFECT AND ITS IMPLEMENTATION
By Fran Adar | April, 2020
Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman (1888–1970) reported the light scattering phenomenon that has become known as the Raman effect in 1928 (Raman and Krishnan 1928). This followed theoretical predictions by Smekal (1923) that such a phenomenon should exist. Raman initially used sunlight, and then the light from a mercury lamp, to excite the spectrum presumably produced when a photon of light lost a small amount of its energy to a molecular vibration.
NEW PERSPECTIVES IN THE INDUSTRIAL EXPLORATION FOR NATIVE HYDROGEN
By Eric C. Gaucher | February, 2020
Hydrogen gas (H2), when combusted, produces heat and water. There is no pollution, just water vapor. When hydrogen combines with oxygen, there is no generation of carbon dioxide, no production of cyclic hydro carbons, no sulfur oxides (SOx), no nitrogen oxides (NOx), no ozone cogeneration.
KIMBERLITE: A UNIQUE PROBE INTO THE DEEP EARTH
By Michael J. Walter | December, 2019
With all due respect to basalt, and I appreciate a granite as much as the next person, kimberlite is hard to beat. But what is a kimberlite? Kimberlites2 may be classified as igneous rocks but it is difficult to know how exactly to describe them in terms of magma, at least in any conventional sense of the word. Kimberlites tap the deepest recesses of our planet that we can sample. Propelled by a formidable volatile load, kimberlite melts transit hundreds of kilometers of mantle and crust, perhaps in just a few days, to form unique ballistic deposits at Earth’s surface. Kimberlites accumulate and transport ripped up bits from throughout most, if not all, of their ascent path, including diamond, that classic gem of desire with its remarkable qualities that have fueled a global market.
DEEP-OCEAN MINERAL RESOURCES
By John F. H. Thompson | October, 2018
The mysteries and promise of the deep ocean rose to attention on the heels of military interest and technology after World War 2. Despite accounting for 70% of the Earth’s surface, almost nothing was known about the deep ocean seafloor. That changed dramatically over the following 60–70 years, although our knowledge still remains patchy at best.
A PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ON LAYERED INTRUSIONS
By Alan E. Boudreau | December, 2017
Last year (2016), when I spoke at the Geological Society of America’s Penrose Conference on “Layered Mafic Intrusions and Associated Economic Deposits” held in Red Lodge, Montana, I noted that I gave my first professional talk some 35 years ago. As a young researcher back then, I had thought that all the interesting questions in layered intrusions were soon to be solved, leaving little room for me to make a name for myself. I was wrong!
WHAT IS SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONTEXT OF MINERAL DEPOSITS?
By Robert Bowell | October, 2017
Sustainable development is a term that all too often has been hijacked within our society by politicians and business promoters eager to endorse their “green” credentials. Yet human society requires sustain able growth in order to continue. However, in the context of much of society’s mineral resources what does sustainability actually mean?
LONG VALLEY CALDERA–MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN UNREST: THE KNOWNS AND THE UNKNOWNS
By David P. Hill | February, 2017
This perspective is based largely on my study of the Long Valley Caldera (California, USA) over the past 40 years. Here, I’ll examine the “knowns” and the “known unknowns” of the complex tectonic–magmatic system of the Long Valley Caldera volcanic complex. I will also offer a few brief thoughts on the “unknown unknowns” of this system.
CULTURAL HERITAGE – BEAUTIFUL QUESTIONS
By Russell R. Chianelli | February, 2016
Nobel Prize–winner Frank Wilczek’s new book A Beautiful Question (2015) is a contemplation on the natural beauty of the universe and how scientists and philosophers, as far back as the ancient Greeks of Pythagoras and Plato, have asked questions about the underlying symmetry that exists in nature. Wilczek calls discovering underlying symmetries “finding Nature’s deep design,” and he develops the theme to include very modern questions of science.
GEOMICROBIOLOGY AND MICROBIAL GEOCHEMISTRY: A VIEW FROM THE PAST
By Kenneth H. Nealson | December, 2015
It might be a useful exercise to begin this over view of geomicrobiology and microbial geo chemistry, or GMG (aka geobiology), to pose the question, “What has GMG done for me (or anyone else)?” The answer from my perspective is, “A huge amount of good!” Forty years ago there was no GMG. N one of the techniques and approaches that we now take for granted were available, and most of what is highlighted in this issue was not even imagined. As you peruse the articles, you will fi nd in each the excitement of making discoveries at the interface between various aspects of microbiology and geochemistry. A new type of young GMG scientist has emerged, unafraid of interdisciplinary work and open to collaboration with previously “unavailable” colleagues. For every one of the articles here (each packed with “good things”) several others from this burgeoning fi eld could have been added. Now for overview!
ROVING ACROSS MARS: SEARCHING FOR EVIDENCE OF FORMER HABITABLE ENVIRONMENTS
By Michael H. Carr | February, 2015
My love affair with Mars started in the late 1960s when I was appointed a member of the Mariner 9 and Viking Orbiter imaging teams. The global surveys of these two missions revealed a geological wonderland in which many of the geological processes that operate here on Earth operate also on Mars, but on a grander scale. I was subsequently involved in almost every Mars mission, both US and non US, through the early 2000s, and wrote several books on Mars, most recently The Surface of Mars (Carr 2006). I also participated extensively in NASA’s long-range strategic planning for Mars exploration, including assessment of the merits of various techniques, such as penetrators, balloons, airplanes, and rovers. I am, therefore, following the results from Curiosity with considerable interest.
AN ARTIST’S LIFE IN JINGDEZHEN, CHINA
By Gary Erickson | June, 2014
For the past nine years, I have been traveling to China to spend my summers in Jingdezhen, known as the “porcelain city of China.” This historic city has been producing ceramics for seventeen hundred years, with the fi rst porcelains invented over one thousand years ago. Living and creating abroad has both challenged and rewarded me as an artist. The translation from low-temperature earthenware sculpture created in my Minnesota studio to pure white high-temperature porcelain in Jingdezhen has been a fascinating journey and almost as daunting as trying to learn the Chinese language.
THE LITTLE MINERAL THAT CHANGED EVERYTHING
By Christian Chopin | August, 2013
From the managing editor: In his iconic 1984 paper, “Coesite and pure pyrope in high-grade blueschists of the Western Alps: a first record and some consequences”— cited 711 times since publication and mentioned in 4 papers in this issue—Christian Chopin concluded his abstract with the following statement, “Eventually the role of continental crust in geodynamics may have to be reconsidered.” Rarely does a single paper have an impact that leads to the development of a whole new area of research. Chopin’s paper, and David Smith’s paper the same year, heralded a new fi eld of research. I thought it would be interesting to get the story of how this discovery came about, and Christian graciously accepted to be interviewed.
ONE HUNDRED MINERALOGICAL QUESTIONS IMPACTING THE FUTURE OF THE EARTH, PLANETARY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
By Richard J. Harrison, Michael F. Hochella Jr, Kevin Murphy and David J. Vaughan | June, 2013
It is arguable that mineralogy is the oldest of all the practical sciences. The early manufacture of fi re that could be called upon ‘at will’ depended, in part, upon the sparks produced on striking minerals such as pyrite. Although anthropologists cannot be certain of the first mineral-based fi re strikers, the oldest commonly accepted evidence of fi re production dates to Homo erectus populations 500,000 years ago. Homo sapiens were expert fi re starters 40,000 to 50,000 years ago, during the Palaeolithic period.
OPEN ACCESS: A CURRENT PERSPECTIVE
By J. Alex Speer, Kevin Murphy, and Sharon Tahirkheli | April, 2013
Open access (OA) means different things to different people. To some, OA means immediate access to scientific content in its final form on the publisher’s website when published. This is Gold OA, made possible when the author or the author’s institution pays the publisher an article processing charge (APC).
SULFUR ISOTOPES AND THE STEPWISE OXYGENATION OF THE BIOSPHERE
By Lee R. Kump | December, 2012
Given a choice of elements to reconstruct the redox history of the planet, geochemists choose sulfur. Many biogeochemical processes fractionate the multiple stable isotopes of S in telltale ways, leaving their imprint in the sedimentary record. Detailing and interpreting that record has become the passion of the paleobiogeochemical community, especially researchers seeking to understand the redox evolution of the oceans and atmosphere through the Precambrian.
COLD PEGMATITES
By J. Lawford Anderson | August, 2012
The large-crystal dikes and seams we know as pegmatites have fascinated geologists, geology students, and rock hounds for centuries. Most are barren of exotic minerals, but the large sizes of quartz, feldspar, and mica are thrilling. Others, not barren, are unusually enriched in B (tourmaline), P (apatite), and F (fluorite and micas). These “fluxing” components, along with H2O, dramatically change the behavior of these residual-magma systems. Also enriched in such pegmatites are Nb, Ta, Sn, Be, Li, Ce, U, Th, and REE, whose concentrations are recorded in minerals such as rutile and titanite (Sn, Nb, Ta), spodumene (Li), and allanite and zircon (Ce, U, Th, REE).
FukuShIMA DAIIChI: LESSONS LEARNED
By Ian G. McKinley | June, 2012
The damage to the Fukushima reactors provided frightening images that shook confidence in nuclear power around the world. It is easy to forget that, as yet, there is no indication of radio logical harm to the general public. Confusing and incorrect comparisons with the completely different situation in Chernobyl highlight a major lesson to be learned from this incident: the importance of clear communication.
IMPACTS AND ThE EARTh: A PERSPECTIVE
By Richard A. F. Grieve and Dieter Stöffler | February, 2012
“Why Study Impact Craters?” is the title of a fundamental contribution by one of the pioneers of impact crater research, Eugene M. Shoemaker, in a landmark book in this field: Impact and Explosion Cratering (Roddy et al. 1977). In his far-reaching vision, Shoemaker wrote: “I submit that impact of solid bodies is the most fundamental of all processes that have taken place on the terrestrial planets. Without impacts, Earth, Mars, Venus, and Mercury wouldn’t exist. Collisions of smaller objects are the process by which the terrestrial planets were born.”
Atmospheric-Particle Research: Past, Present, and Future
By Peter R. Buseck | August, 2010
Except when wistfully daydreaming, admiring the sunset, or perhaps worrying about the weather for the day’s field work, our attention and gaze as earth scientists is downward. No “Hans GuckindieLuft”2 are we. And yet, a refocusing of interest upwards to the atmosphere, and the minerals and other particles in it, can be useful and rewarding.
Perspectives on Metamorphic Processes and Fluids
By Alan Bruce Thompson | June, 2010
Aqueous fluids make things happen inside the Earth . They considerably speed heat and mass transfer and induce weakness and instabilities in rock masses . Water is instrumental in localising deformation, enabling tectonic response to plate motion; it also markedly decreases the melting temperature of silicate rocks and lowers the viscosity of silicate magmas . Aqueous fluids transport large quantities of dissolved material . Questions to answer in the future include: What determines where fluids go inside the Earth? What determines their quantity and rate of flow? What are the chemical effects of flowing fluids on the rocks and local fluids with which they interact? And what consequences are there for mineralisation and rock deformation?
ThE ChALLENGE OF CO2 STABILIzATION
By Steven E. Koonin2, Chief Scientist, BP | October, 2008
Stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations by mid-century is one of the world’s great challenges; it will require a complex mix of technology, economics, and politics . In order to appreciate what might be done to move toward that goal, I review the energy landscape as important context to understanding the political and technical steps that might be taken.