ИЗМЕЛЬЧЕННЫЕ, РАЗДРОБЛЕННЫЕ, КИПЯЧЕНЫЕ, ЗАПЕЧЕННЫЕ И МНОГОЕ ДРУГОЕ: ПРИРОДА ИСПОЛЬЗОВАЛА 57 РЕЦЕПТОВ ДЛЯ СОЗДАНИЯ БОЛЕЕ 10 500 "ВИДОВ МИНЕРАЛОВ" НА ЗЕМЛЕ

How does one best subdivide nature into kinds? All classification systems require rules for lumping similar objects into the same category, while splitting different objects into separate categories. Our work in placing mineral species within their evolutionary contexts necessitates this lumping and splitting, because we classify “mineral natural kinds” based on unique combinations of formational environments and continuous temperature-pressure-composition phase space. A 15-year study details the origin and diversity of every known mineral on Earth, a landmark body of work that will help to reconstruct the history of life on Earth, guide the search for new minerals and other deposits, predict possible characteristics of future life, and aid the search for habitable planets and extraterrestrial life. The papers' new insights and conclusions include the following ones: o Water has played a dominant role in formation of mineral diversity of Earth, involved in the formation of more than 80% of mineral species. o Life played a direct or indirect role in the formation of almost half of known mineral species while a third of known minerals formed exclusively as a consequence of biological activities. o Rare elements play a disproportionate role in Earth's mineral diversity. Just 41 elements together constituting less than 5 parts per million of Earth's crust are essential constituents in some 2,400 (over 42%) of Earth's minerals. o Much of Earth's mineral diversity was established within the planet's first 250 million years o Some 296 known minerals are thought to pre-date Earth itself, of which 97 are known only from meteorites o More than 600 minerals have derived from human activities Based on the numbers of root mineral kinds, their known varied modes of formation, and predictions of minerals that occur on Earth but are as yet undiscovered and described, we estimated that Earth holds more than 10 000 mineral natural kinds.