From stardust to life: »Early Earth became an engine of mineral production, thanks to the water on its surface, the heat in its deeper layers, and the rock-recycling system of plate tectonics. These, and other physical and chemical processes, combined to form 1,500 different minerals. That’s a sizeable sum to be sure, but today we know of 5,000 different minerals species. What created the remaining 3,500 minerals, which comprise the vast majority of mineral species? The inevitable conclusion – one that has shaken the mineralogical community to its core – is that most minerals (two out of three, in fact) arise as a result of biological processes.«
Posted on: Sun, 29 Jun 2014 07:37:01 +0000
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