Mineral Evolution

February 2010, Vol. 6, No. 1

“Mineral evolution,” the study of Earth’s changing near-surface mineralogy, frames Earth materials research with a historical narrative. This 4.5-billion-year story integrates themes of planetary science, including geodynamics, petrology, geochemistry, thermodynamics, geobiology, and more. Mineralogy thus holds the key to unlocking our planet’s history and assumes its rightful central role in the Earth sciences. The mineralogy of terrestrial planets evolves as a consequence of physical, chemical, and biological processes. Starting with ~12 refractory minerals in prestellar molecular clouds, processes in the solar nebula led to the ~250 different minerals found in meteorites. Initial mineral evolution of Earth’s crust depended on a sequence of geochemical and petrologic processes that resulted in an estimated 1500 different mineral species. Ultimately, biological processes produced large-scale changes in atmospheric and ocean chemistry that may be responsible, directly or indirectly, for most of Earth’s 4400 known mineral species. Mineral evolution thus highlights the coevolution of the geo and biospheres.

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