Water Reservoir Inside Earth

A massive reservoir of water three times the volume of Earth's oceans has been discovered 700 km down inside the mantle locked within a blue rock called ringwoodite, with the liquid "sweating" out of the mineral due to the great pressures and temperatures.

Oldest Piece of Earth's Crust

Using uranium decay dating methods, a 4.4 billion-year-old zircon crystal found in the Jack Hills region of Western Australia has been confirmed as the oldest known fragment of Earth's crust, evidence of solid crust formation soon after Earth's formation itself and quickly following the impact that produced the Moon.

Gold in Tree Leaves

Researchers have found gold particles in the leaves of gum trees (Eucalyptus spp.) in Australia, with the trees acting as hydraulic pumps to draw the metals from underground sources and providing a possible new method for identifying mineral deposits.

New Mineral from Meteorite

Scientists studying the Allende meteorite that landed in Mexico in 1969 have discovered a new mineral embedded in the rock, a titanium oxide dubbed panguite, a mineral previously unknown to science and believed to be one of the oldest minerals formed in the solar system.

Crystal Rain on Proto-Star

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected a proto-star in the constellation Orion that has tiny green crystals of the mineral olivine (forsterite) raining down on the star from its surrounding clouds of dust and gas.

New Minerals in Meteorites

Two new minerals, named krotite and wassonite, have been discovered inside two different meteorites and join about 60 unique minerals known to date to the formation of our solar system.

New Mineral Wassonite

A new mineral has been discovered in a 4.5-billion-year-old meteorite sample found in Antarctica in 1969 composed of sulfur and titanium with a crystal structure not previously seen in nature, named wassonite after geologist and meteorite researcher John T. Wasson.