[Rockhounds] Scientists and philosopher team up, propose a new way to categorize minerals

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

A diamond lasts forever, but that doesn't mean all diamonds have a common
history.

Some diamonds <https://phys.org/tags/diamonds/> were formed billions of
years ago in space as the carbon-rich atmospheres of dying stars expanded
and cooled. In our own planet's lifetime, high-temperatures and pressures
in the mantle produced the diamonds that are familiar to us as gems. 5,000
years ago, a large meteorite that struck a carbon-rich sediment on Earth
produced an impact diamond.

Each of these diamonds differs from the others in both composition and
genesis, but all are categorized as "diamond" by the authoritative guide to
minerals—the International Mineralogical Association's Commission on New
Minerals, Nomenclature and Classification.

For many physical scientists, this inconsistency poses no problem. But the
IMA system leaves unanswered questions for planetary scientists
<https://phys.org/tags/planetary+scientists/>, geobiologists,
paleontologists and others who strive to understand minerals' historical
context <https://phys.org/tags/historical+context/>.

So, Carnegie's Robert Hazen and Shaunna Morrison teamed up with CU Boulder
philosophy of science professor Carol Cleland to propose that scientists
address this shortcoming with a new "evolutionary system" of mineral
classification—one that includes historical data
<https://phys.org/tags/historical+data/> and reflects changes in the
diversity and distribution of minerals through more than 4 billion years of
Earth's history.

Their work is published by the *Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences*.
https://phys.org/news/2020-12-scientists-philosopher-team-categorize-minerals.html