minerals

When Pressure Builds Too Fast, Ice Gets Stuck in ‘Glassy’ Form

Amorphous Ice is an Experimental Side Effect of an Interrupted Crystal Transition

At high pressures and low temperature, water can form amorphous ice – a non-crystallized ‘glass-like’ solid that researchers had thought was related to supercooled water. New research, however, shows that amorphous ice occurs when ice gets stuck in an intermediate form in between two crystal structures.

Content tagged with “minerals”Showing 1-10 of 57 results

Carbon Mineral Challenge Adds 30 New Carbon Minerals 24 June 2019 Feature

The Carbon Mineral Challenge will officially end in September 2019, but this first-of-its-kind…

Unraveling the ENIGMA of Protein Evolution 6 June 2019 Feature

Proteins are finely tuned, specialized “nanomachines” that catalyze necessary chemical reactions in…

New Mineral Classification System Captures Earth’s Complex Past 3 June 2019 Feature

The first minerals to form in the universe were nanocrystalline diamonds, which condensed from…

Amorphous Ice is an Experimental Side Effect of an Interrupted Crystal Transition 22 May 2019 Feature

Virtually all the ice that we encounter on Earth’s surface, from snowflakes to ice cubes, has a…

Of Meteorites and Mines: Recent Highlights from the Carbon Mineral Challenge 26 March 2019 Feature

The Carbon Mineral Challenge has now documented 28 new carbon minerals since the program’s launch…

The First Steps When Water Meets Rock 12 December 2018 Feature

When water encounters certain magnesium- and iron-rich mantle minerals, exciting things can happen…

Clumps of Organic Carbon Found Within Serpentinites 28 November 2018 Feature

In theory, the process of serpentinization, where seawater infiltrates and reacts with the mantle…

Two New Sloan Foundation Grants for Deep Carbon Science 20 November 2018 Feature

The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation recently announced two new Officer’s Grants for deep carbon science…

Earth’s First Amino Acids May Have Come From Oceanic Crust 7 November 2018 Feature

As a graduate student at the University of Chicago in the early 1950s, Stanley Miller attempted to…

One of Two New Carbon Minerals is First of Its Kind 25 May 2018 Feature

Three years and 15 new minerals later, the Carbon Mineral Challenge continues to produce surprises…