Earth’s rarest minerals catalogued

Feb 14

Scientists categorise the Earth’s rarest minerals with some so rare that the total global supply could fit in a thimble. None of 2,500 species described is known from more than five locations and for a few of them the total global supply could fit in a thimble. The researchers say it is important to hunt down these oddities because they contain fundamental information about the construction of our planet. Some will also undoubtedly have properties that are useful in technological applications. The list appears in a paper about to be published in the journal Americam Mineralogist.