Bridgmanite: the most abundant mineral on Earth
Bridgmanita: el mineral más abundante de la Tierra
- Date
- 2014 · confidence high
- Place
- Tenham meteorite, Queensland, Australia
- Credited to
- Oliver Tschauner and colleagues
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
In 2014 the first natural sample of the perovskite-structured magnesium silicate that dominates the lower mantle was described in the Tenham meteorite, and it was named bridgmanite after the physicist Percy Bridgman. It makes up about 38% of the Earth's volume.
It had been synthesised in the laboratory since the 1970s (Liu, 1974) and predicted from seismic data; in 2014 the first natural specimen was found in a meteorite that fell in 1879. The exact location of Tenham is approximate.
What it led to
- confirmation of lower-mantle mineralogy
- comparison of high-pressure experiments with natural minerals