The discovery of tridymite in Mars’s Gale Crater triggered debate about the rare mineral’s origins. A research team recently suggested a scenario with explosive implications.
quartz
Posted inEditors' Vox
The Kinetics of the Seismic Cycle
Large earthquakes are necessarily punctuated by some degree of strength recovery, such as “fault healing”, but does quartz cementation during fluid-fault interactions facilitate that process?
Posted inNews
State-of-the-Art Technology, Serendipity, and Secrets of Stonehenge
The first comprehensive analysis of what the sarsen stones are made of came about with new technology—and good old-fashioned luck.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Lightning Strikes May Leave Traces Like Those of Meteorites
Scientists have long interpreted shocked quartz as definitive evidence of a past meteorite impact, but the shock wave caused by lightning striking granite also produces this distinctive feature.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Lab Experiments Show How Fault Surfaces Get Groovy
Formation of nanometer-scale quartz beads could promote linear “slickenline” patterns and facilitate fault movement.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
How Do Tropical Forests Slow Knickpoints in Rivers?
Using Puerto Rico's Luquillo Mountains as a case study, scientists use the region's geological history to study how knickpoints—areas where there's a sharp change in the river's slope—move over time.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Despite Dryness, Quartz Grains Can Deform in Earth's Crust
A comparison of water content in undeformed and deformed quartz indicates that grains may change shape via weakening processes that cannot be duplicated in laboratory experiments.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Trace Element Holds the Key to Deformation of Continents
Studies of titanium in quartz grains could help scientists gain a better understanding of our planet's shifting surface.