Discovery of bridgmanite, the most abundant mineral in Earth, in a shocked meteorite

Meteorites exposed to high pressures and temperatures during impact-induced shock often contain minerals whose occurrence and stability normally confine them to the deeper portions of Earth's mantle. One exception has been MgSiO3 in the perovskite structure, which is the most abundant solid pha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2014-11, Vol.346 (6213), p.1100-1102
Main Authors: Tschauner, Oliver, Ma, Chi, Beckett, John R., Prescher, Clemens, Prakapenka, Vitali B., Rossman, George R.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chondrites
Crystals
Earth
Earth mantle
Iron
Magnesium composites
Mantle
Materials
Meteorites
Meteors & meteorites
Minerals
Names
Nitrogen
Oceans
Perovskite
Perovskite structure
Perovskites
Wave diffraction
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Summary:Meteorites exposed to high pressures and temperatures during impact-induced shock often contain minerals whose occurrence and stability normally confine them to the deeper portions of Earth's mantle. One exception has been MgSiO3 in the perovskite structure, which is the most abundant solid phase in Earth. Here we report the discovery of this important phase as a mineral in the Tenham L6 chondrite and approved by the International Mineralogical Association (specimen IMA 2014-017). MgSiO3-perovskite is now called bridgmanite. The associated phase assemblage constrains peak shock conditions to ∼ 24 gigapascals and 2300 kelvin. The discovery concludes a half century of efforts to find, identify, and characterize a natural specimen of this important mineral.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1259369