Research & Development World

  • Home Page
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Archeology
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Chemistry
    • COVID-19
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Market Pulse
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
      • Software
    • Semiconductors
  • 2021 R&D 100 Award Winners
    • R&D 100 Awards
    • 2020 Winners
    • Winner Archive
  • Resources
    • Digital Issues
    • Podcasts
    • Subscribe
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Webinars

Rethinking the chemical makeup of Earth’s mantle

By R&D Editors | November 12, 2013

A new discovery by researchers from the Univ. of Notre Dame’s Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences could change prevailing assumptions about the chemical makeup of the Earth’s mantle.

Antonio Simonetti, an assoc. prof. in the department, and his doctoral student Wei Chen worked in cooperation with Vadim Kamenetsky of the Univ. of Tasmania, Hobart (Australia) to learn the art of conducting chemical and mineralogical analyses of melt inclusions within crystals of the mineral magnetite (Fe3O4).

Simonetti points out that the magnetite crystals are hosted within igneous rocks (rocks resulting from the melting of the Earth’s mantle) referred to as carbonatites.

“The latter are an exceptional and intriguing type of igneous rock since they are composed primarily of calcium carbonate, or Calcite-CaCO3, rather than silicate minerals, which are the predominant minerals in the Earth’s crust and oceanic rocks,” Simonetti said. “Despite the small number of carbonatite occurrences worldwide compared to their volcanic counterparts in the past and present day, carbonatites continue to receive considerable deserved attention because of their unique enrichment, relative to crustal abundances in incompatible trace elements, such as niobium and the rare Earth elements.”

To date, most of the geological community believed that the sodium- and potassium-rich magmas being erupted at the Earth’s sole active carbonatite volcano at Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania were unique, since all other carbonatite occurrences worldwide are dominated by calcium-rich carbonate or calcite.

In an attempt to resolve this question, Wei sought to determine the initial melt composition that gave rise to the Oka carbonatite complex, which is located in southeastern Quebec.

“We approached this issue by examining the nature and chemical composition of melt inclusions within individual magnetite crystals present in carbonatites,” Simonetti said. “Melt inclusions are micron-sized ‘pockets’ present within minerals that represent a combination or mechanical mixture of co-trapped crystals and melt engulfed and isolated early in the crystallization history of the magma while the magnetite crystals were forming. Hence, investigating melt inclusions represents a powerful tool for determining the chemical composition of the initial carbonatite magma at the Oka complex.”

Wei and Simonetti’s research revealed that the chemical composition of minerals trapped within the melt inclusions at the Oka complex are alkaline in nature and similar in composition to the minerals present at Ol Doinyo Lengai volcano. The finding will have a major impact in relation to deciphering and modeling chemical processes taking place in the Earth’s mantle throughout geologic time.

“This has some significant consequences as to how earth scientists should view the overall chemical budget of the Earth’s mantle since this is where carbonatite magmas are produced,” Simonetti said. “We are not attributing enough alkalies in the region of the mantle where carbonitite melts form.”

In addition to its significance for the field of earth science, the finding also has important practical and strategic importance. Carbonatites are of critical importance in the continually evolving fields of superconductors, electronics and computing. Several countries such as the U.S., China, Brazil and Canada are host to carbonatite occurrences, and there is active exploration in many of these countries to locate new deposits given the ever-increasing demand for the manufacturing of sophisticated electronic components.

A paper describing the research appears in Nature Communications.

Source: Univ. of Notre Dame

Related Articles Read More >

Argonne webinar to explore the challenges of recycling lithium-ion batteries and solutions
U.S. DOE grants $25M to advance clean hydrogen technologies for electricity generation 
Advanced Ionics secures $4.2M for decarbonization of industrial hydrogen production
MilliporeSigma’s ZooMAb antibodies earns first-ever ACT Label from My Green Lab
2021 R&D Global Funding Forecast

Need R&D World news in a minute?

We Deliver!
R&D World Enewsletters get you caught up on all the mission critical news you need in research and development. Sign up today.
Enews Signup

R&D World Digital Issues

February 2020 issue

Browse the most current issue of R&D World and back issues in an easy to use high quality format. Clip, share and download with the leading R& magazine today.

Research & Development World
  • Subscribe to R&D World Magazine
  • Enews Sign Up
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing
  • 2021 Global Funding Forecast

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search R&D World

  • Home Page
  • Topics
    • Aerospace
    • Archeology
    • Automotive
    • Biotech
    • Chemistry
    • COVID-19
    • Environment
    • Energy
    • Life Science
    • Material Science
    • R&D Market Pulse
    • R&D Management
    • Physics
  • Technology
    • 3D Printing
    • A.I./Robotics
    • Battery Technology
    • Controlled Environments
      • Cleanrooms
      • Graphene
      • Lasers
      • Regulations/Standards
      • Sensors
    • Imaging
    • Nanotechnology
    • Scientific Computing
      • Big Data
      • HPC/Supercomputing
      • Informatics
      • Security
      • Software
    • Semiconductors
  • 2021 R&D 100 Award Winners
    • R&D 100 Awards
    • 2020 Winners
    • Winner Archive
  • Resources
    • Digital Issues
    • Podcasts
    • Subscribe
  • Global Funding Forecast
  • Webinars