While a lot of us know the common minerals on our planet, scientists have discovered a new mineral called davemaoite. A team of geochemists discovered the mineral in dark inclusions inside a diamond. “There’s just one catch: it shouldn’t be here,” said the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The team traced the mineral to at least 660 kilometers down inside Earth’s lower mantle between the core and the crust. UNLV said it’s “the first time that lower mantle minerals have ever been observed in nature.”
Preserved inside a diamond
The mineral was preserved in a diamond mined from Botswana and sold by a dealer back in 1987 Davemaoite usually might be able to retain its structure outside of the high-pressure environment of our planet’s mantle, but diamonds are known to be that strong.
“For jewelers and buyers, the size, color, and clarity of a diamond all matter, and inclusions — those black specks that annoy the jeweler — for us, they’re a gift,” said mineralogist Oliver Tschauner. “I think we were very surprised. We didn’t expect this.”
Tschauner led the study on the mineral; it can be found in the journal Science. The team analyzed the diamond’s internal structure and discovered the calcium silicate compound (CaSiO₃-perovskite) inside. They put the “davemaoite” moniker on it for pioneering geophysicist Ho-Kwang Dave Mao. The International Mineralogical Association has also approved the new mineral and added it to the list of minerals.
Creating a new state of matter
Previously, scientists at the University of Chicago claimed to have created a “strange” new state of matter in the lab called “superionic ice” – and that the stuff might already exist inside planets in our solar system.
The team used a particle accelerator to fire electrons between two pieces of diamond, creating pressures of 20 gigapascals in a sample of water that caused it to form an entirely new structure that changed back when the pressure was relieved. The team also suspects that conditions inside Uranus and Neptune might give rise to the new state in a natural way. This could pave the way for more studies.
