If every mineral tells a story, then geologists now have their equivalent of The Arabian Nights. For the first time, scientists have cataloged every different way that every known mineral can form and ...

Two related discoveries detailing nanocrystalline mineral formation and dynamics have broad implications for managing nuclear waste, predicting soil weathering, designing advanced bioproducts and ...

Minerals are geologic time capsules of the environments in which they form. With the right approach, their mysteries can be cracked open to reveal key features of the ancient Earth or other planets.

An international research team involving scientists from the University of Vienna, the Faculty of Physics of the University of Warsaw and Univeristy of Edinburgh has described the process of growing ...

Silicon dioxide, or silica, is one of Earth’s most common chemical compounds. It makes up more than 60 percent of the planet’s crust. The substance is also one of nature’s most diverse. Its atoms ...

New findings have implications for questions regarding how animals and plants grow minerals into shapes that have no relation to their original crystal symmetry, and why some contaminants are ...

Photo: Courtesy of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences Chinese scientists have identified two previously unknown lunar minerals from the 1,731 grams of moon samples returned by Chang'e-5 mission, ...

Two new minerals have been discovered in lunar dust, revealing secrets about the Moon's formation and internal evolution.