X-ray analysis reveals unexpected behaviour of silica minerals
With high-pressure experiments at DESY’s X-ray light source PETRA III and other facilities, a research team around Leonid Dubrovinsky from the University of Bayreuth has solved a long standing riddle in the analysis of meteorites from Moon and Mars. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, can explain why different versions of silica can coexist in meteorites, although they normally require vastly different conditions to form. The results also mean that previous assessments of conditions at which meteorites have been formed have to be carefully re-considered.
The scientists investigated a silicon dioxide (SiO2) mineral that is called cristobalite. „This mineral is of particular interest when studying planetary samples, such as meteorites, because this is the predominant silica mineral in extra-terrestrial materials,“ explains first author Ana Černok from Bayerisches Geoinstitut (BGI) at University Bayreuth, who is now based at the Open University in the UK. „Cristobalite has the same chemical composition as quartz, but the structure is significantly different,“ adds co-author Razvan Caracas from CNRS, ENS de Lyon.
Picture: Credit: NASA/JPL/University of Arizona [Source]