Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-ndw9j Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T09:12:38.119Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Causes of anomalous mineralogical diversity in the Periodic Table

Part of: Foundations in mineralogy and crystallography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Andrew G. Christy
Andrew G. Christy*
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics, Research School of Physics and Engineering, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When crustal abundance (A, measured in atomic parts per million) of a chemical element is plotted vs. number of mineral species in which that element is an essential constituent (S), a significantly positive correlation is obtained, but with considerable scatter. Repeated exclusion of outliers at the 90% confidence level and re-fitting leads, after the sixth iteration, to a steady state in which 40 of the 70 elements initially considered define a trend with log S = 1.828 + 0.255 log a (r = 0.96), significantly steeper than the original. Three other methods for reducing the effect of outliers independently reproduce this steeper trend. The 'diversity index' D of an element is defined as the ratio of observed mineral species to those predicted from this trend. D separates elements into three groups. More than half of the elements (40 of 70) have D = 0.5–2.0. Apart from these 'typical' elements, a group of 15 elements (Sc, Cr, Ga, Br, Rb, In, Cs, La, Nd, Sm, Gd, Yb, Hf, Re and Th) form few species of their own due to being dispersed as minor solid solution constituents, and a hitherto unrecognized group of 15 elements are essential components in unusually large numbers of minerals. The anomalously diverse group consists of H, S, Cu, As, Se, Pd, Ag, Sb, Te, Pt, Au, Hg, Pb, Bi and U, with Te and Bi by far the most mineralogically diverse elements (D = 22 and 19, respectively). Possible causes and inhibitors of diversity are discussed, with reference to atomic size, electronegativity and Pearson softness, and particularly outer electronic configurations that result in distinctive stereochemistry. The principal factors encouraging mineral diversity are: (1) Particular outer electronic configurations that lead to a preference for unique coordination geometries, enhancing an element's ability to form distinctive chemical compounds and decreasing its ability to participate in solid solutions. This is particularly noteworthy for elements possessing geometrically flexible 'lone-pair cations' with an s2 outer electronic configuration. (2) Siderophilic or chalcophilic geochemical behaviour and intermediate electronegativity, allowing elements to form minerals that are not oxycompounds or halides. (3) Access to a wide range of oxidation states. The most diverse elements can occur as anions, native elements and in more than one cationic valence state.

Keywords

mineral diversitygeochemical abundancestereochemistryPeriodic Table
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 79 , Issue 1 , February 2015 , pp. 33 - 49
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2015

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ahrens, T.J. (editor)(1995) Global Earth physics: a Handbook of Physical Constants. AGU Reference Shelf, Vol. 1. American Geophysical Union, Washington DC, 376 pp.Google Scholar
Atencio, D., Andrade, M.B., Christy, A.G., Gieré, R. and Kartashov, P.M. (2010) The pyrochlore group of minerals: nomenclature. The Canadian Mineralogist 48, 673-698.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bannister, F.A. and Hey, M.H. (1932) Determination of minerals in platinum concentrates from the Transvaal by X-ray methods. Mineralogical Magazine 28, 188-206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Biagioni, C., Bonaccorsi, E., Moëlo, Y., Orlandi, P., Bindi, L., D’Orazio, M. and Vezzoni, S. (2014) Mercury-arsenic sulfosalts from the Apuan Alps (Tuscany, Italy). II. Arsiccioite, AgHg2TlAs2S6, a new mineral from the Monte Arsiccio mine: occurrence, crystal structure and crystal chemistry of the routhierite isotypic series. Mineralogical Magazine 78, 101-117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bindi, L., Arakcheeva, A. and Chapuis, G. (2009) The role of silver on the stabilization of the incommensurately modulated structure in calaverite, AuTe2. American Mineralogist 94, 728-736.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloch, A.N. and Schatteman, G.C. (1981) Quantumdefect orbital radii and the structural chemistry of simple solids. Pp. 49-72. in: Structure and Bonding in Crystals, Vol. I (M. O’Keeffe and A. Navrotsky, editors). Academic Press, New York, 327 pp.Google Scholar
Brodersen, K., Goebel, G. and Liehr, G. (1989) Terlinguaite, Hg4O2Cl2: Ein Mineral mit ungewöhnlichen Hg3 Baueinheiten. Zeitschrift für anorganische und allgemeine Chemie 575, 145-153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burdett, J.K., Price, G.D. and Price, S.L. (1981) Factors influencing solid-state structures – an analysis using pseudopotential radii structural maps. Physical Review, B24, 2903-2912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, P.C. (1999) The crystal chemistry of uranium. Pp. 23-90. in: Uranium: Mineralogy, Geochemistry and the Environment (P.C. Burns and R. Finch, editors). Reviews in Mineralogy, 38. Mineralogical Society of America, Washington DC.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burns, P.C. and Hawthorne, F.C. (1996) Static and dynamic Jahn-Teller effects in Cu2+ oxysalt minerals. The Canadian Mineralogist 34, 1089-1105.Google Scholar
Burns, P.C., Miller, M.L. and Ewing, R.C. (1996) U6+ minerals and inorganic phases: a comparison and hierarchy of crystal structures. The Canadian Mineralogist 34, 845-880.Google Scholar
Cabri, L.J., Harris, D.C. and Gait, R.I. (1973) Michenerite (PdBiTe) redefined and froodite (PdBi2) confirmed from the Sudbury area. The Canadian Mineralogist 11, 903-912.Google Scholar
Christy, A.G. and Mills, S.J. (2013) Effect of lone-pair stereoactivity on polyhedral volume and structural flexibility: application to TeIVO6 octahedra. Acta Crystallographica, B69, 446-456.Google Scholar
Cordero, B., Gómez, V., Platero-Prats, A., Revés, M., Echeverría, J., Cremades, E., Barragán, F. and Alvarez, S. (2008) Covalent radii revisited. Dalton Transactions 21, 2832-2838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craw, J.S., Vincent, M.A., Hillier, J.H. and Wallwork, A.L. (1995) Ab initio quantum chemical calculations on uranyl UO2 2+, plutonyl PuO2 2+ and their nitrates and sulfates. Journal of Physical Chemistry 99, 10181-10185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Deliens, M. and Piret, P. (1982) Bijvoetite et lepersonnite, carbonates hydratés d’uranyle et de terres rares de Shinkolobwe, Zaı¨re. The Canadian Mineralogist 20, 231-238.Google Scholar
Denning, R.G. (2007) Electronic structure and bonding in actinyl ions and their analogs. Journal of Physical Chemistry A 111, 4125-4143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dye, M.D. and Smyth, J.R. (2012) The crystal structure and genesis of krennerite, Au3AgTe8. The Canadian Mineralogist 50, 119-127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eby, R.K. and Hawthorne, F.C. (1993) Structural relations in copper oxysalt minerals. I. Structural hierarchy. Acta Crystallographica, B49, 28-56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Effenberger, H., Culetto, F.J., Topa, D. and Paar, W.H. (2000) The crystal structure of synthetic buckhornite, [Pb2BiS3][AuTe2]. Zeitshcrift für Kristallographie 215, 10-16.Google Scholar
Emsley, J. (2002) Nature’s Building Blocks: an A–Z Guide to the Elements. Oxford University Press. Oxford, UK, 538 pp.Google Scholar
Genkin, A.D. and Zvyagintsev, O.E. (1962) Vysotskite, a new sulfide of palladium and nickel. Zapiski Vsesoyuznogo Mineralogicheskogo Obshchestva 91, 718-725. [in Russian].Google Scholar
Glans, P.-A., Learmonth, T., McGuiness, C., Smith, K.E., Guo, J., Walsh, A., Watson, G.W. and Egdell, R.G. (2004) On the involvement of the shallow core 5d level in the bonding of HgO. Chemical Physics Letters 399, 98-101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Godovikov, A.A. and Hariya, Y. (1987) The connection between the properties of elements and compounds: mineralogical-crystallochemical classification of elements. Journal of the Faculty of Science of Hokkaido University, Series IV 22, 357-385.Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, V.M. (1937) The principles of distribution of chemical elements in minerals and rocks. The seventh Hugo Muller lecture, delivered before the Chemical Society on March 17th, 1937. Journal of the Chemical Society 1937, 655-673.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Greenwood, N.N. and Earnshaw, A. (1997) Chemistry of the Elements. 2nd edition. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford, UK, 1341 pp.Google Scholar
Hatert, F. and Burke, E.A.J. (2008) The IMA-CNMNC dominant-constituent rule revised and extended. The Canadian Mineralogist 46, 717-728.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawthorne, F.C. (1992) The role of OH and H2O in oxide and oxysalt minerals. Zeitschrift für Kristallographie 201, 183-206.Google Scholar
Hawthorne, F.C. (2002) The use of end-member chargearrangements in defining new mineral species and heterovalent substitutions in complex minerals. The Canadian Mineralogist 40, 699-710.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynes, W.M., Lide, D.R. and Bruno, T.J. (2013) CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 94th edition. CRC Press, Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, London, New York.Google Scholar
Hazen, R.M., Grew, E.S., Downs, R.T., Golden, J., Hystad, G. and Sverjensky, D. (2014) Chance and necessity in the mineral evolution of terrestrial planets. Geochemical Society Ingerson Lecture, 2014 GSA Annual Meeting, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, 19-22. October, 2014, Abstract #242965.Google Scholar
Higgins, M.D. and Smith, D.G.W. (2010) A census of mineral species in 2010. Elements 6, 346.Google Scholar
Hume-Rothery, W. and Powell, H.M. (1935) On the theory of super-lattice structures in alloys. Zeitschrift für Kristallographie 91, 23-47.Google Scholar
Jurriaanse, T. (1935) The crystal structure of Au2Bi. Zeitschrift für Kristallographie 90, 322-329.Google Scholar
Kampf, A.R., Mills, S.J., Housley, R.M., Marty, J. and Thorne, B. (2010) Lead-tellurium oxysalts from the Otto Mountain near Baker, California: IV. Markcooperite, Pb(UO2)Te6+O6, the first natural uranyl tellurate. American Mineralogist 95, 1554-1559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaupp, M. and von Schnering, H.G. (1994a) Dominance of linear 2-coordination in mercury chemistry: quasirelativistic and nonrelativistic ab initio pseudopotential study of (HgX2)2 (X = F, Cl, Br, I, H). Inorganic Chemistry 33, 2555-2564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaupp, M. and von Schnering, H.G. (1994b) Origin of the unique stability of condensed-phase Hg2 2+. An ab initio investigation of MI and MII species (M = Zn, Cd, Hg). Inorganic Chemistry 33, 4179-4185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krivovichev, S.V. (2013) Structural complexity of minerals: information storage and processing in the mineral world. Mineralogical Magazine 77, 275-326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krivovichev, V.G. and Charykova, M.V. (2014) Number of minerals of various chemical elements: statistics 2012 (a new approach to an old problem). Geology of Ore Deposits 56, 553-559.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krivovichev, S.V., Burns, P.C., Tananaev, I.G. and Myasoedov, B.F. (2007) Nanostructured actinide compounds. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 444–445. 457–463.Google Scholar
May, I., Copping, R., Cornet, S.M., Talbot-Eeckelears, C.E., Gaunt, A.J., John, G.H., Redmond, M.P., Sharrad, C.A., Sutton, A.D., Collison, D., Fox, O.D., Jones, C.J., Sarsfield, M.J. and Taylor, R.J. (2007) Actinyl chemistry at the Centre for Radiochemistry Research. Journal of Alloys and Compounds, 444–445. 383–386.Google Scholar
Mills, S.J., Hatert, F., Nickel, E.H. and Ferraris, G. (2009) The standardisation of mineral group hierarchies: application to recent nomenclature proposals. European Journal of Mineralogy 21, 1073-1080.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miyawaki, R. and Nakai, I. (1996) Crystal chemical aspects of rare earth minerals. Pp. 21-40. in: Rare Earth Minerals. Chemistry, Origin and Ore Deposits (Jones, A.P., Wall, F. and Williams, C.T., editors). Mineralogical Society Series, Vol. 7. Chapman and Hall, London.Google Scholar
Moore, P.B. (1970) Mineralogy and chemistry of Långban-type deposits in Bergslagen, Sweden. Mineralogical Record 1, 154-172.Google Scholar
Mooser, E. and Pearson, W.B. (1959) On the crystal chemistry of normal valence compounds. Acta Crystallographica, A12, 1015-1022.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Physical Laboratory (2005) Kaye and Laby Tables of Physical and Chemical Constants. http://www.kayelaby.npl.co.uk/chemistry/3_1/3_1_3.html. Google Scholar
Nickel, E.H. (1995) The definition of a mineral. The Canadian Mineralogist 33, 689-690.Google Scholar
Nickel, E.H. and Grice, J.D. (1998) The IMA Commission on New Minerals and Mineral Names: procedures and guidelines on mineral nomenclature, 1998. The Canadian Mineralogist 36, 913-926.Google Scholar
Nyholm, R.S. (1961) Electron configuration and structure of transition-metal complexes. Tilden Lecture. Proceedings of the Chemical Society 1961, 273-298.Google Scholar
O’Keeffe, M. (1989) The prediction and interpretation of bond lengths in crystals. Structure and Bonding 71, 161-198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
O’Keeffe, M. and Brese, N.E. (1991) Atom sizes and bond lengths in molecules and crystals. Journal of the American Chemical Society 113, 3226-3229.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orgel, L.E. (1958) Stereochemistry of metals of the B sub-groups. Part I. Ions with filled d-electron shells. Journal of the Chemical Society 1958, 4186-4190.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pauling, L. (1960) The Nature of the Chemical Bond: An Introduction to Modern Structural Chemistry. 3rd edition. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, New York, USA, 664 pp.Google Scholar
Pauly, H. (1969) White cast iron with cohenite, schreibersite, and sulphides from Tertiary basalts on Disko, Greenland. Bulletin of the Geological Society of Denmark 19, 8-26.Google Scholar
Pearson, R.G. (1963) Hard and soft acids and bases. Journal of the American Chemical Society 85, 3533-3539.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, J.C. (1970) Ionicity of the chemical bond in crystals. Reviews of Modern Physics 42, 317-356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pyykkö, P. (2012) Relativistic effects in chemistry: more common than you thought. Annual Review of Physical Chemistry 63, 45-64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rasmussen, B., Fletcher, I.R., Gregory, C.J., Muhling, J.R. and Suvorova, A.A. (2012) Tranquillityite: the last lunar mineral comes down to earth. Geology 40, 83-86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sarp, H., Pushcharovsky, D.Y., MacLean, J.E., Teat, S.J. and Zubova, V.N. (2003) Tillmannsite , (Ag3Hg)(V,As)O4, a new mineral: its description and crystal structure. European Journal of Mineralogy 15, 177-180.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schindler, M. and Hawthorne, F.C. (2001) A bondvalence approach to the structure, chemistry and paragenesis of hydroxy-hydrated oxysalt minerals. I. Theory. The Canadian Mineralogist 39, 1225-1242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sen, P.K. (1968) Estimates of the regression coefficient based on Kendall’s tau. Journal of the American Statistical Association 63, 1379-1389.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shannon, R.D. (1976) Revised effective ionic radii and systematic studies of interatomic distances in halides and chalcogenides. Acta Crystallographica, A32, 751-767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, M. and Ewing, R.C. (1978) The crystal structures of the ThSiO4 polymorphs: huttonite and thorite. Acta Crystallographica, B34, 1074-1079.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, S.R. and McLennan, S.M. (1985) The Continental Crust: its Composition and Evolution. Blackwell Scientific Publishing, Oxford, UK, 330 pp.Google Scholar
Theil, H. (1950) A rank-invariant method of linear and polynomial regression analysis I. II and III. Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen, Proceedings 53, 386-392. 512–525. and 1397–1412.Google Scholar
Walsh, A., Payne, D.J., Egdell, R.G. and Watson, G.W. (2011) Stereochemistry of post-transition metal oxides: revision of the classical lone pair model. Chemical Society Reviews 40, 4455-4463.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wa¨nke, H., Dreibus, G. and Jagoutz, E. (1984) Mantle chemistry and accretion history of the Earth. pp. 1–24. in: Archaean Geochemistry (Kröner, A., Hanson, G.N. and Goodwin, A.M., editors). Springer- Verlag, Berlin.Google Scholar
Weaver, B.L. and Tarney, J. (1984) Major and trace element composition of the continental lithosphere. Pp. 39-68. in: Physics and Chemistry of the Earth (H.N. Pollack and V.R. Murthy, editors) 15. Pergamon, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Wedepohl, K.H. (1995) The composition of the continental crust. Ingerson Lecture. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 59, 1217-1232.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wenk, H.-R. and Bulakh, A. (2004) Minerals: their Constitution and Origin. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 646 pp.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaroshevsky, A.A. (2006) Abundances of chemical elements in the Earth’s crust. Geochemistry International 44, 48-55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yaroshevsky, A.A. and Bulakh, A.G. (1994) The mineral composition of the Earth’s crust, mantle, meteorites, moon and planets. Pp. 27-36. in: Advanced Mineralogy, Volume 1: Composition, Structure, and Properties of Mineral Matter: Concepts, Results and Problems (A.S. Marfunin, editor). Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg.Google Scholar
Zolensky, M.E. (1985) New data on sincosite. American Mineralogist 70, 409-410.Google Scholar
Zunger, A. (1981) A pseudopotential viewpoint of the electronic and structural properties of crystals. Pp. 73-135. in: Structure and Bonding in Crystals, Vol. I (M. O’Keeffe and A. Navrotsky, editors). Academic Press, New York, 327 pp.Google Scholar