Mineralogy articles within Nature Communications

Featured

• Article | 23 April 2013

  Biological carbon precursor to diagenetic siderite with spherical structures in iron formations

  The role of bacteria in the origin of iron formations (IF) remains unclear because no direct evidence for their involvement exists. This study shows that spherical siderite in deep-water IF represents a biosignature for photoferrotrophy, whereas massive siderite reflects high cyanobacterial biomass in shallow-water.

  • Inga Köhler
  • , Kurt O Konhauser
  •  & Andreas Kappler

• Article | 29 January 2013

  The Tissint Martian meteorite as evidence for the largest impact excavation

  High-pressure minerals in meteorites reflect the conditions prevailing when they were excavated and launched from their parent bodies. Tissint—a recent Martian meteorite—contains an unusual number of large high-pressure minerals, suggesting excavation from an impact of larger magnitude than for previous Martian samples.

  • Ioannis P. Baziotis
  • , Yang Liu
  •  & Lawrence A. Taylor

• Article | 15 February 2011

  New silica clathrate minerals that are isostructural with natural gas hydrates

  Clathrates are minerals with cage-like structural voids that can be filled by guest species; three types are plausible but only one has been observed in nature. Mommaet al. have discovered the remaining two types in Japanese marine sediments, and determined their structural similarity to natural gas hydrates.

  • Koichi Momma
  • , Takuji Ikeda
  •  & Yasuhiro Kudoh