Abstract
Minerals containing chromium (Cr) as an essential element display systematic trends in their diversity and distribution. We employ data for 72 approved terrestrial Cr mineral species (http://rruff.info/ima, as of 15 April 2016), representing 4089 mineral species-locality pairs (http://mindat.org and other sources, as of 15 April 2016). We find that Cr-containing mineral species, for which 30% are known at only one locality and more than half are known from three or fewer localities, conform to a Large Number of Rare Events (LNRE) distribution. Our model predicts that at least 100 ± 13 (1σ) Cr minerals exist in Earth’s crust today, indicating that 28 ± 13 (1σ) species have yet to be discovered—a minimum estimate because our model assumes that new minerals will be found only using the same methods as in the past. Numerous additional Cr minerals likely await discovery using micro-analytical methods.
We propose 117 compounds as plausible Cr minerals to be discovered, including 7 oxides, 11 sulfides, 7 silicates, 7 sulfates, and 82 chromates. Depending on their compositions and crystal structures, new Cr minerals are likely to be discovered in various environments, including meteorites, basalt, evaporites, and oxidized Pb ore deposits.
Acknowledgments
We thank Sergey Krivovichev and one anonymous reviewer for constructive reviews, and Martin Kunz for handling this manuscript. This work was supported in part by the NASA Astrobiology Institute, the Deep Carbon Observatory, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, the W.M. Keck Foundation, a private foundation, and the Carnegie Institution for Science for support of mineral evolution and ecology research.
References cited
Allard, B. (1995) Groundwater. In B. Aalbu and E. Steinnes, Eds., Trace Elements in Natural Waters, p. 151–176. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida.Search in Google Scholar
Anger, G., Halstenberg, J., Hochgeschwender, K., Scherhag, C., Korallus, U., Knopf, H., Schmidt, P., and Ohlinger, M. (2000) Chromium compounds. In Ullmann’s Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry, Wiley-VCH Verlag.10.1002/14356007.a07_067Search in Google Scholar
Anthony, J.W., Bideaux, R.A., Bladh, K.W., and Nichols, M.C. (2003) Handbook of Mineralogy, vol. V. Borates, Carbonates, Sulfates. Mineralogical Society of America, Chantilly, Virginia.Search in Google Scholar
Baayen, R.H. (2001) Word Frequency Distributions. Kluwer, Dordrecht.10.1007/978-94-010-0844-0Search in Google Scholar
Bell, A.S., Burger, P.V., Le, L., Shearer, C.K., Papike, J.J., Sutton, S.R., Newville, M., and Jones, J (2014) XANES measurements of Cr valence in olivine and their applications to planetary basalts. American Mineralogist, 99, 1404–1412.10.2138/am.2014.4646Search in Google Scholar
Berry, A.J., O’Neill, H.St.C., Scott, D.R., Foran, G.J., and Shelley, J.M.G. (2006) The effect of composition on Cr2+/Cr3+ in silicate melts. American Mineralogist, 91, 1901–1908.10.2138/am.2006.2097Search in Google Scholar
Bunch, T., and Olsen, E. (1975) Distribution and significance of chromium in meteorites. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 39, 911–927.10.1016/B978-0-08-019954-2.50016-0Search in Google Scholar
Burns, R.G. (1975) Crystal field effects in chromium and its partitioning in the mantle. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 39, 857–864.10.1016/B978-0-08-019954-2.50010-XSearch in Google Scholar
Christy, A. (2015) Causes of anomalous mineralogical diversity in the Periodic Table. Mineralogical Magazine, 79, 33–49.10.1180/minmag.2015.079.1.04Search in Google Scholar
Delnick, F.M., Guidotti, R.A., and McCarthy, D.K. (1985) Chromium (V) compounds as cathode material in electrochemical power sources, Google Patents; https://www.google.ch/patents/US4508796.Search in Google Scholar
Duke, J. (1976) Distribution of the period four transition elements among olivine, calcic clinopyroxene and mafic silicate liquid: experimental results. Journal of Petrology, 17, 499–521.10.1093/petrology/17.4.499Search in Google Scholar
Evert, S., and Baroni, M. (2008) Statistical Models for Word Frequency Distributions, Package zipfR, http://zipfr.r-forge.r-project.org/, http://www.stefan-evert.de/PUB/EvertBaroni2007.pdf. Accessed April 12, 2016.Search in Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, V.M. (1937) The principles of distribution of chemical elements in minerals and rocks. The seventh Hugo Müller Lecture, delivered before the Chemical Society on March 17th, 1937. Journal of the Chemical Society (Resumed), 655–673.10.1039/JR9370000655Search in Google Scholar
Grew, E.S., Krivovichev, S.V., Hazen, R.M., and Hystad, G. (2016) Evolution of structural complexity in boron minerals. Canadian Mineralogist, 54, 125–143.10.3749/canmin.1500072Search in Google Scholar
Hazen, R.M., Grew, E.S., Downs, R.T., Golden, J., and Hystad, G. (2015a) Mineral ecology: Chance and necessity in the mineral diversity of terrestrial planets. Canadian Mineralogist, 53, 295–324.10.3749/canmin.1400086Search in Google Scholar
Hazen, R.M., Hystad, G., Downs, R.T., Golden, J., Pires, A., and Grew, E.S. (2015b) Earth’s “missing” minerals. American Mineralogist, 100, 2344–2347.10.2138/am-2015-5417Search in Google Scholar
Hazen, R.M., Hummer, D.R., Hystad, G., Downs, R.T., and Golden, J.J. (2016) Carbon mineral ecology: Predicting the undiscovered minerals of carbon. American Mineralogist, 101, 889–906.10.2138/am-2016-5546Search in Google Scholar
Hazen, R.M., Hystad, G., Golden, J.J., Hummer, D.R., Liu C., Downs, R.T., Morrison S.M., and Grew, E.S. (2017) Cobalt mineral ecology. American Mineralogist, 102, 108–116.10.2138/am-2017-5798Search in Google Scholar
Henderson, P. (1982) Inorganic Geochemistry, 353 p. Pergamon Press, Oxford.Search in Google Scholar
Hystad, G., Downs, R.T., and Hazen, R.M. (2015a) Mineral frequency distribution data conform to a LNRE model: Prediction of Earth’s “missing” minerals. Mathematical Geosciences, 47, 647–661.10.1007/s11004-015-9600-3Search in Google Scholar
Hystad, G., Downs, R.T., Grew, E.S., and Hazen, R.M. (2015b) Statistical analysis of mineral diversity and distribution: Earth’s mineralogy is unique. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 426, 154–157.10.1016/j.epsl.2015.06.028Search in Google Scholar
Kaim, W., Schwederski, B., and Klein A. (2013) Bioinorganic Chemistry–Inorganic Elements in the Chemistry of Life: An Introduction and Guide (2nd ed.), Wiley.Search in Google Scholar
Katz, S.A., and Salem, H. (1994). The Biological and Environmental Chemistry of Chromium, VCH Publishers.Search in Google Scholar
Kotás, J., and Stasicka, Z. (2000) Chromium occurrence in the environment and methods of its speciation. Environmental Pollution, 107, 263–283.10.1016/S0269-7491(99)00168-2Search in Google Scholar
Krumpolc, M., and Rocek, J. (1976) Stable chromium (V) compounds. Journal of the American Chemical Society, 98, 872–873.10.1021/ja00419a057Search in Google Scholar
Lafuente, B., Downs, R.T., Yang, H., and Stone, N. (2015) The power of databases: The RRUFF project. In T. Armbruster and R.M. Danisi, Eds., Highlights in Mineralogical Crystallography, Berlin, Germany, W. De Gruyter, p. 1–30.10.1515/9783110417104-003Search in Google Scholar
Mertz, W. (1969) Chromium occurrence and function in biological systems. Physiol. Rev, 49:2.10.1152/physrev.1969.49.2.163Search in Google Scholar PubMed
National Research Council (2008) Minerals, Critical Minerals, and the U.S. Economy. National Research Council of the National Academies, Washington, D.C. www.nap.eduSearch in Google Scholar
Orcutt, M. (2011) Material world. Technology Review, [July/August 2011], 24–25.Search in Google Scholar
Pellerin, C., and Booker, S.M. (2000) Reflections on hexavalent chromium: health hazards of an industrial heavyweight. Environmental Health Perspectives, 108, A402.10.1289/ehp.108-a402Search in Google Scholar PubMed PubMed Central
Rudnick, R.L., and Fountain, D.M. (1995) Nature and composition of the continental crust: a lower crustal perspective. Reviews of Geophysics, 33, 267–309.10.1029/95RG01302Search in Google Scholar
Rudnick, R.L. and Gao, S. (2005) Composition of the continental crust. In R.L. Rudnick, Ed., The Crust, vol. 3, p. 1–64. Treatise on Geochemistry, Elsevier Pergamon, Oxford, U.K.10.1016/B0-08-043751-6/03016-4Search in Google Scholar
© 2017 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
