Life helps make almost half of Earth’s minerals
13 comments
·July 1, 2022dr_dshiv
Many aquagenic minerals are so close to being life themselves. We have way more mineral species on earth than on non-water bearing planets.
tgv
Can you give an example or a link? When I search for "aquagenic minerals," I find absolutely nothing like what I infer to be "minerals that generate water."
thaumasiotes
It's possible that "aquagenic minerals" means "minerals that are created in water"; it would be weird for minerals to generate water.
dr_dshiv
https://www.iflscience.com/catalog-of-every-known-mineral-on...
6000 minerals and over 10,000 mineral kinds, 80% of which result from water-based production processes (what I’m referring to as aquagenic formation). Not sure the proper term, sorry for the confusion.
heavyset_go
I'm imagining they mean mineral hydrates but maybe I'm wrong.
dr_dshiv
It might be a neologism but im using it in the sense of biogenic and abiogenic mineral creation.
null
When they say “half” they mean half of the kinds. It's not like half of the weight of the minerals on earth.