Posted January 22nd, 2021 for JAMSTEC
1. Overview
A research group led by Dr. Naotaka Tomioka, Senior Researcher at the Kochi Institute for Core Sample Research of the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (KOCHI JAMSTEC) gave the mineral name “poirierite” to a high-pressure phase with the chemical composition of olivine that was found in shocked meteorites. Poirierite has now been officially approved as a new mineral species by the International Mineralogical Association.
Olivine (peridot) is abundantly found not just in the Earth's upper mantle, but also in stony meteorites. Using a high-resolution electron microscope, the research group examined a meteorite that have been exposed to high-temperature and high-pressure environments caused by a mutual collision of asteroids. As a result, the research group made the world’s first discovery of a high-pressure phase of olivine called the “epsilon phase” in 2017 (more information can be found in the explanatory article). The research group has since discovered “epsilon phase” in two more different stony meteorites and has investigated their structures and chemical compositions by experimental and theoretical methods. Based on this detailed data, the research group proposed to call the epsilon phase “poirierite”—a new mineral ( Figures 1 and 2 ).