Grew Quoted in Quanta Magazine Article on Mineral Evolution

Ed Grew, a research professor of geological sciences at the University of Maine, was quoted in a Quanta Magazine article about whether geology is predictable or if Earth’s mineral composition is due to chance events. The answer, according to the article, could help scientists identify planets likely to harbor life. Robert Hazen, a mineral physicist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington’s Geophysical Laboratory, worked with collaborators including Grew to investigate the role chance played in mineral formation. They found the more abundant the element, the more minerals it formed, according to the article. Grew, a co-author of the study, said the results still support the idea of determinism because “we can explain why they’re not obeying the rules.” The team also found evidence for the role of chance by using a database to retrieve more than 650,000 mineral observations at specific locations around the world. Twenty-two percent of all minerals were reported in only one place, and 12 percent were found in only two places, according to the article. The rare minerals might appear only under unforeseen circumstances, such as an unusual assembly of rocks that concentrates elements together, the article states. “It’d be like if you threw together a whole mess of ingredients and cooked it up, and it came out to be a prize-winning culinary dish,” Grew said.