So common, yet far out of sight,
Mineralogists longed for a bite.
Formed deep inside,
Or when rocks collide,
At long last, a name: bridgmanite!
__________________________________________________________
Further reading:
Discovery of bridgmanite, the most abundant mineral in Earth, in a shocked meteorite, Tschauner et al. (2014) Science
Earth’s Most Abundant Mineral Finally Gets a Name, National Geographic
Space Rock Sheds Light on Mysterious Mineral on Earth, LiveScience
This is one in a series of poems written by Katherine Allen, a researcher in geochemistry and paleoclimate at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory and the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences at Rutgers University.
