[Rockhounds] Why rocks on Earth resemble the planet Mercury

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

>From its "absurd" core to the baffling chemical composition of its surface,
Mercury is full of surprises – not least the planet's origins. But some
answers could be held in rocks found in Cyprus.

Curiosity has killed many an explorer, and Nicola Mari feared he was to be
the next.

Driving around Cyprus's remotest mountains, Mari had relied on his cell
phone for directions. But as the light of the day faded, so did his phone
battery – and he found himself stuck in the middle of nowhere with little
idea of the way back to his lodgings. "I'd travelled for more than 50km (31
miles) without seeing another vehicle," he says.

He thought he could remember the way to an inn, where he might refill his
stomach, engine, and phone battery – but having arrived there, he found it
was deserted. A lucky turn eventually led him to another establishment, but
he admits to fearing for his life on those lonely mountain roads. "I made
some bad calculations," he says.

Fortunately, his mission was not in vain. Mari is a planetary geologist at
the University of Pavia in Italy who studies ways that our neighbours in
the solar system formed and evolved. For his PhD, he had studied Martian
lava flows. This time, his sights were set on Mercury – by way of Cyprus.
His aim was to find a certain kind of rock, named "boninite", that is
thought to bear an uncanny similarity to the rocks found on Mercury – a
supposition which, if right, could be a clue to the planet's unique origins.

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20240410-mercury-the-solar-systems-smallest-planet-may-once-have-been-as-large-as-earth