[Rockhounds] Making minerals: Crushed, zapped, boiled and baked

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

*When the penguins poop on Antarctica's Elephant Island, a little bit of
magic happens in the soil.*

Chemical reactions produce a dull brown mineral called spheniscidite. It's
unique and reflects the special conditions that exist only in that locality.

The name comes from Sphenisciformes - the label used to describe penguins'
grouping in the avian tree of life.

The crystalline compound is just one of roughly 6,000 such minerals
recognised today by the International Mineralogical Association.

But the IMA's classification system, which describes so much of the "hard
stuff" all around us, has just undergone something of a reboot.

Dr Robert Hazen from the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington DC
has spent the past 15 years reclassifying the minerals to add information
about their genesis.
"There's been a classification system in place for almost two centuries
that's based on the chemistry and the crystal structure of minerals, and
ours adds the dimensions of time and formation environment," he told the
Science In Action programme <https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct3695> on
the BBC World Service.

https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62013806