davemaoite
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Davemaoite is a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) mineral with a distinctive cubic crystal structure. It is named after geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, who pioneered in many discoveries in high-pressure geochemistry and geophysics.
Wikidata facts
- Named after
- Ho-Kwang Mao
Show 4 more facts
- crystal system
- cubic crystal system
- chemical formula
- CaSiO₃
- type locality (geology)
- Orapa diamond mine
- IMA Mineral Symbol
- Dvm
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Encyclopedic overview
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- See also
- References
Davemaoite is a high-pressure calcium silicate perovskite (CaSiO3) mineral with a distinctive cubic crystal structure. It is named after geophysicist Ho-kwang (Dave) Mao, who pioneered in many discoveries in high-pressure geochemistry and geophysics.
It is one of three main minerals in Earth's lower mantle, making up around 5–7% of the material there. Significantly, davemaoite can host uranium and thorium, radioactive isotopes which produce heat through radioactive decay and contribute greatly to heating within this region giving the material a major role in how heat flows deep below the Earth's surface.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “davemaoite” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.