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> No one has ever successfully retrieved a high-pressure calcium silicate from the lower mantle before. This is because the high-pressure CaSiO3-perovskite is “
by sandgiant 5y ago
> No one has ever successfully retrieved a high-pressure calcium silicate from the lower mantle before. This is because the high-pressure CaSiO3-perovskite is “unquenchable,” meaning that it cannot retain its structure after being removed from its high-pressure environment.
> “When we broke open the diamond, the davemaoite stayed intact for about a second, then we saw it expand and bulge under the microscope and basically turn into glass,” says Tschauner.
Science paper (paywalled): https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4742 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4742
- kwonkicker 5y agoOh man, they killed the only davemaoite we ever had, it's so sad
- msrenee 5y agoBut now that they know where to look for it, I'm pretty sure they'll find more.
- cbozeman 5y agoBiologists do this as well. Once we encounter a new species, it's killed and then studied. This is called a 'voucher specimen'. Obviously it's possible to make a species extinct if you kill the only one of it's kind, and the necessity of voucher specimens is a topic of debate amongst field biologists.
- celeritascelery 5y agoIt would be so cool to have a video of that moment!