While researchers have long known that our planet’s most abundant solid phase is magnesium iron silicate (Mg,Fe)SiO3, since this material occurs deep below Earth’s surface, in the lower mantle, it has remained officially nameless until now (in order to receive a formal, recognized name, a mineral sample must be available for characterization). In a new paper published in the journal Science, scientists have finally characterized and named this mineral bridgmanite, based on a sample found in the Tenham (L6 chondrite) meteorite: Discovery of bridgmanite, the most abundant mineral in Earth, in a shocked meteorite.,,,,, and . Science 28 November 2014: 346 (6213), 1100–1102. [DOI:10.1126/science.1259369].
Also published in the same issue of the journal is a perspective on the paper, authored by ASU School of Earth & Space Exploration Professor and Director of the LeRoy Eyring Center for Solid State Science Thomas Sharp. This perspective offers additional insight into the history of this research and its relation to shocked meteorites, as well as a detailed schematic of Earth’s interior. Bridgmanite—named at last. Science 28 November 2014: 346 (6213), 1057–1058. [DOI:10.1126/science.1261887].
