The journey to our planet's centre began a century ago when William Henry Bragg and his son, William Lawrence, used X-ray diffraction to reveal the atomic configuration of common minerals such as halite, diamond, fluorite and calcite. Decades of challenging experimental work to unravel how the structures of such minerals are altered by the extreme pressures and temperatures found in the deep Earth culminated in 2004 when researchers discovered1, 2 that the main mineral of the lower mantle, iron-bearing magnesium silicate ((Mg,Fe)SiO3) perovskite, transforms to a compact configuration known as post-perovskite at conditions similar to those at the core–mantle boundary.
Feed: Nature - Issue - nature.com science feeds
Posted on: Wednesday, 26 February 2014 11:00 AM
Author: Thomas Duffy
Subject: Earth science: Crystallography's journey to the deep Earth
Earth science: Crystallography's journey to the deep Earth
Nature 506, 7489 (2014). doi:10.1038/506427a<http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/506427a>
Author: Thomas Duffy
Improved methods for studying minerals at extreme pressures and temperatures promise a new era for exploring our planet's centre, says Thomas Duffy.
View article...<http://feeds.nature.com/~r/nature/rss/current/~3/C_Si21Wydp8/506427a>
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