Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: What is the most abundant mineral on the Moon?
Elements known to be present on the lunar surface include, among others, oxygen (O), silicon (Si), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), calcium (Ca), aluminium (Al), manganese (Mn) and titanium (Ti). Among the more abundant are oxygen, iron and silicon. The oxygen content is estimated at 45% (by weight). Carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) appear to be present only in trace quantities from deposition by solar wind.
Troilite can be found as a native mineral on Earth, but is more abundant in meteorites, in particular those originating from the Moon and Mars. It is among the minerals found in samples of the meteorite that struck Russia on February 15th, 2013. Uniform presence of troilite on the Moon and possibly on Mars has been confirmed by the Apollo, Viking and Phobos space probes. The relative intensities of isotopes of sulfur are rather constant in meteorites as compared to the Earth minerals, and therefore troilite from Canyon Diablo meteorite is chosen as the international sulfur isotope ratio standard.
In Earth's crust, scandium is not rare. Estimates vary from 18 to 25 ppm, which is comparable to the abundance of cobalt (20–30 ppm). Scandium is only the 50th most common element on Earth (35th most abundant in the crust), but it is the 23rd most common element in the Sun. However, scandium is distributed sparsely and occurs in trace amounts in many minerals. Rare minerals from Scandinavia and Madagascar such as thortveitite, euxenite, and gadolinite are the only known concentrated sources of this element. Thortveitite can contain up to 45% of scandium in the form of scandium oxide.
The Earth's crust contains 2.27% sodium, making it the seventh most abundant element on Earth and the fifth most abundant metal, behind aluminium, iron, calcium, and magnesium and ahead of potassium. Sodium's estimated oceanic abundance is 1.08 milligrams per liter. Because of its high reactivity, it is never found as a pure element. It is found in many different minerals, some very soluble, such as halite and natron, others much less soluble, such as amphibole and zeolite. The insolubility of certain sodium minerals such as cryolite and feldspar arises from their polymeric anions, which in the case of feldspar is a polysilicate.
Three main minerals make up most of the ore production in the Silver Valley. Galena (PbS or lead(II) sulfide) is the most important ore mineral found in the Coeur d’Alene District veins. Galena is present in veins throughout the district. Sphalerite ((Zn,Fe)S) is the second most important ore mineral, present in at least small amounts in most veins. The sphalerite is an important source of zinc throughout the ore belts. The third most abundant ore mineral is tetrahedrite (Cu,Fe)SbS. However, the tetrahedrite is responsible for the majority of the silver produced by the Silver Valley, as it’s the tetrahedrite interspersed in the galena of the district that makes it so argentiferous.
Sulfur makes up 0.035% of the earth's crust by weight, making it the 17th most abundant element there[5] and makes up 0.25% of the human body.[50] It is a major component of soil. Sulfur makes up 870 parts per million of seawater and about 1 part per billion of the atmosphere.[1] Sulfur can be found in elemental form or in the form of sulfide minerals, sulfate minerals, or sulfosalt minerals.[51] Stars of at least 12 times the mass of the sun produce sulfur in their cores via nuclear fusion.[10] Sulfur is the tenth most abundant element in the universe, making up 500 parts per million of the universe by weight.[52][53]
Crystallization of this magma ocean would have created a mafic mantle from the precipitation and sinking of the minerals olivine, clinopyroxene, and orthopyroxene; after about three-quarters of the magma ocean had crystallised, lower-density plagioclase minerals could form and float into a crust atop. The final liquids to crystallise would have been initially sandwiched between the crust and mantle, with a high abundance of incompatible and heat-producing elements.
The noisy miner has benefited from the thinning of woodland on rural properties, heavy grazing that removes the understory, fragmentation of woodland that increases the percentage of edge habitat, and urban landscaping practices that increase open eucalypt environments. It has been described as a 'reverse keystone' species, as it is colonising an ever-increasing range of human-dominated habitats, and aggressively excluding smaller bird species from urban environments. This phenomenon has been also observed in rural areas. A field study across the South West Slopes of New South Wales, showed that the noisy miner's presence corresponded with reduced numbers of insectivorous birds such as fantails, whistlers, the restless flycatcher ("Myiagra inquieta"), and other honeyeater species, and that this decrease was most marked in sites with better access to water and nutrients. While it has been hypothesised that the proliferation of large-flowering grevillea cultivars has contributed to the abundance of noisy miners, recent research has identified the proliferation of lightly treed open areas, and the presence of eucalypt species as the most significant factors in the population increase. Large-flowered grevillea hybrids such as Grevillea 'Robyn Gordon' can benefit the noisy miner, in that an abundance of resources is usually dominated by larger aggressive honeyeaters, and a continuous nectar source could provide an advantage for the non-migratory species. A field study in box-ironbark country in central Victoria found miner numbers were correlated with the occurrence of yellow gum ("Eucalyptus leucoxylon"), which reliably produces flowers (and nectar) each year. The abundance of the noisy miner is primarily determined by habitat structure.
The most common mineral in the Earth is bridgmanite, a magnesium-rich silicate which adopts the perovskite structure at high pressure. As pressure increases, the SiO tetrahedral units in the dominant silica-bearing minerals become unstable compared with SiO octahedral units. At the pressure and temperature conditions of the lower mantle, the most abundant material is a perovskite-structured mineral with the formula (Mg,Fe)SiO, with the second most abundant material likely the rocksalt-structured (Mg,Fe)O oxide, periclase.
The abundance and diversity of minerals is controlled directly by their chemistry, in turn dependent on elemental abundances in the Earth. The majority of minerals observed are derived from the Earth's crust. Eight elements account for most of the key components of minerals, due to their abundance in the crust. These eight elements, summing to over 98% of the crust by weight, are, in order of decreasing abundance: oxygen, silicon, aluminium, iron, magnesium, calcium, sodium and potassium. Oxygen and silicon are by far the two most important– oxygen composes 47% of the crust by weight, and silicon accounts for 28%.[46]
Plagioclase is a major constituent mineral in the Earth's crust, and is consequently an important diagnostic tool in petrology for identifying the composition, origin and evolution of igneous rocks. Plagioclase is also a major constituent of rock in the highlands of the Earth's moon. Analysis of thermal emission spectra from the surface of Mars suggests that plagioclase is the most abundant mineral in the crust of Mars.
Among the apophyllite group, fluorapophyllite is the most abundant compared to the other two minerals in the group, hydroxyapophyllite and natroapophyllite. It is popular among many mineral collectors because of the large, well-developed crystals they form and the multiple colors they come in. The most wanted variation of fluorapophyllite is the green colored variant, which is found in India. Fluorapophyllite is also found in New Jersey of the United States. This mineral is found as a secondary mineral in vesicules in volcanic rocks such as basalt.
Anorthite is the calcium endmember of the plagioclase feldspar mineral series. The chemical formula of pure anorthite is CaAlSiO. Anorthite is found in mafic igneous rocks. Anorthite is rare on the Earth but abundant on the Moon.
The largest grouping of minerals by far are the silicates; most rocks are composed of greater than 95% silicate minerals, and over 90% of the Earth's crust is composed of these minerals.[90] The two main constituents of silicates are silicon and oxygen, which are the two most abundant elements in the Earth's crust. Other common elements in silicate minerals correspond to other common elements in the Earth's crust, such as aluminium, magnesium, iron, calcium, sodium, and potassium.[91] Some important rock-forming silicates include the feldspars, quartz, olivines, pyroxenes, amphiboles, garnets, and micas.
The Pinal Mountains have an abundance and variety of minerals, both precious and non-precious. Numerous mining claims existed in the Pinal Mountains from 1875 to the early 1900s. With precious minerals such as Copper, Silver, and trace amounts of Gold being mined in varying quantities from the mountains during that period. Other less precious minerals found in more abundance in the mountains include Iron, Quartz, Calcite, Malachite, Azurite, Feldspar, Diorite, and the Lead ores of Galena and Anglesite. The most successful mine was the Gibson mine, located on the far western section of the range and was most successful from 1906-1918. It accounted for 99% of the total Copper and Silver production from the mountains, which totaled 12.5 million pounds ( over 6,250 tons ) of Copper and 3,500 ounces of Silver ( as a by product of the Copper mining ). Many of the mines located higher up in the mountains helped develop some of the modern day hiking trails, one notable example being Sixshooter Canyon trail in the eastern section of the mountains. Which was a mining trail leading to a mine claim in the mid to late 1870's, the miners each wore Six shooters which led to the naming of the Canyon and the trail, in what was then the American frontier in Arizona. Today, however, there are no active mines on the mountains and most of the previous mines have long been mined out.
The mineral content on the lunar surface was mapped with the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M), a NASA instrument on board the orbiter. The presence of iron was reiterated and changes in rock and mineral composition have been identified. The Oriental Basin region of the Moon was mapped, and it indicates abundance of iron-bearing minerals such as pyroxene.
Pingxiang has abundant water and mineral resources. Five rivers flow across the land which delivers approximately 2.626 billion cubic meters per year. Coal, iron ore, limestone, kaolin and granite are the most abundant minerals of the city. Even today, the "Pingxiangren" or local people proudly refer to their city as the "coal center of southern China."
Like in most other d-block groups, the abundance in Earth's crust of group 12 elements decreases with higher atomic number. Zinc is with 65 parts per million (ppm) the most abundant in the group while cadmium with 0.1 ppm and mercury with 0.08 ppm are orders of magnitude less abundant. Copernicium, as a synthetic element with a half-life of a few minutes, may only be present in the laboratories where it was produced.
Group 12 metals are chalcophiles, meaning the elements have low affinities for oxides and prefer to bond with sulfides. Chalcophiles formed as the crust solidified under the reducing conditions of the early Earth's atmosphere. The commercially most important minerals of group 12 elements are sulfide minerals. Sphalerite, which is a form of zinc sulfide, is the most heavily mined zinc-containing ore because its concentrate contains 60–62% zinc. No significant deposits of cadmium-containing ores are known. Greenockite (CdS), the only cadmium mineral of importance, is nearly always associated with sphalerite (ZnS). This association is caused by the geochemical similarity between zinc and cadmium which makes geological separation unlikely. As a consequence, cadmium is produced mainly as a byproduct from mining, smelting, and refining sulfidic ores of zinc, and, to a lesser degree, lead and copper. One place where metallic cadmium can be found is the Vilyuy River basin in Siberia. Although mercury is an extremely rare element in the Earth's crust, because it does not blend geochemically with those elements that constitute the majority of the crustal mass, mercury ores can be highly concentrated considering the element's abundance in ordinary rock. The richest mercury ores contain up to 2.5% mercury by mass, and even the leanest concentrated deposits are at least 0.1% mercury (12,000 times average crustal abundance). It is found either as a native metal (rare) or in cinnabar (HgS), corderoite, livingstonite and other minerals, with cinnabar being the most common ore.
Molybdenum is the 54th most abundant element in the Earth's crust and the 25th most abundant element in its oceans, with an average of 10 parts per billion; it is the 42nd most abundant element in the Universe. The Russian Luna 24 mission discovered a molybdenum-bearing grain (1 × 0.6 µm) in a pyroxene fragment taken from Mare Crisium on the Moon. The comparative rarity of molybdenum in the Earth's crust is offset by its concentration in a number of water-insoluble ores, often combined with sulfur in the same way as copper, with which it is often found. Though molybdenum is found in such minerals as wulfenite (PbMoO) and powellite (CaMoO), the main commercial source is molybdenite (MoS). Molybdenum is mined as a principal ore and is also recovered as a byproduct of copper and tungsten mining.
Partial melting within the mantle of the Moon gave rise to the eruption of mare basalts on the lunar surface. Analyses of these basalts indicate that the mantle is composed predominantly of the minerals olivine, orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene, and that the lunar mantle is more iron-rich than that of the Earth. Some lunar basalts contain high abundances of titanium (present in the mineral ilmenite), suggesting that the mantle is highly heterogeneous in composition. Moonquakes have been found to occur deep within the mantle of the Moon about 1,000 km below the surface. These occur with monthly periodicities and are related to tidal stresses caused by the eccentric orbit of the Moon about the Earth. A few shallow moonquakes with hypocenters located about 100 km below the surface have also been detected, but these occur more infrequently and appear to be unrelated to the lunar tides.
The SHRIMP is primarily used for geological and geochemical applications. It can measure the isotopic and elemental abundances in minerals at a 30 micrometre-scale and is therefore well-suited for the analysis of complex minerals, as often found in metamorphic terrains, some igneous rocks, and for relatively rapid analysis of statistical valid sets of detrital minerals from sedimentary rocks. The most common application of the instrument is in uranium-thorium-lead geochronology, although the SHRIMP can be used to measure some other isotopic and elemental abundances.
Indium is the 68th most abundant element in Earth's crust at approximately 50 ppb. This is similar to the crustal abundance of silver, bismuth and mercury. It very rarely forms its own minerals, or occurs in elemental form. Fewer than 10 indium minerals such as roquesite (CuInS) are known, and none occur at sufficient concentrations for economic extraction. Instead, indium is usually a trace constituent of more common ore minerals, such as sphalerite and chalcopyrite. From these, it can be extracted as a by-product during smelting. While the enrichment of indium in these deposits is high relative to its crustal abundance, it is insufficient, at current prices, to support extraction of indium as the main product.
Sodium and potassium are very abundant in earth, both being among the ten most common elements in Earth's crust; sodium makes up approximately 2.6% of the Earth's crust measured by weight, making it the sixth most abundant element overall and the most abundant alkali metal. Potassium makes up approximately 1.5% of the Earth's crust and is the seventh most abundant element. Sodium is found in many different minerals, of which the most common is ordinary salt (sodium chloride), which occurs in vast quantities dissolved in seawater. Other solid deposits include halite, amphibole, cryolite, nitratine, and zeolite. Many of these solid deposits occur as a result of ancient seas evaporating, which still occurs now in places such as Utah's Great Salt Lake and the Dead Sea. Despite their near-equal abundance in Earth's crust, sodium is far more common than potassium in the ocean, both because potassium's larger size makes its salts less soluble, and because potassium is bound by silicates in soil and what potassium leaches is absorbed far more readily by plant life than sodium.
At 3%, calcium is the fifth most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and the third most abundant metal behind aluminium and iron. It is also the fourth most abundant element in the lunar highlands. Sedimentary calcium carbonate deposits pervade the Earth's surface as fossilized remains of past marine life; they occur in two forms, the rhombohedral calcite (more common) and the orthorhombic aragonite (forming in more temperate seas). Minerals of the first type include limestone, dolomite, marble, chalk, and iceland spar; aragonite beds make up the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, and the Red Sea basins. Corals, sea shells, and pearls are mostly made up of calcium carbonate. Among the other important minerals of calcium are gypsum (CaSO·2HO), anhydrite (CaSO), fluorite (CaF), and apatite ([Ca(PO)F]).
The luminaries were what traditional astrologers called the two astrological "planets" which were the brightest and most important objects in the heavens, that is, the Sun and the Moon. Luminary means, source of light. The sun and moon, being the most abundant sources of light to the inhabitants of Earth are known as luminaries. The astrological significance warrants the classification of the Sun and Moon separately from the planets, in that the Sun and Moon have to do with Man's spiritual consciousness, while the planetary influences operate through the physical mechanism. The Moon is a luminary in the biblical sense that it affords to Man "light by night". Some early, Pre-Newtonian astronomers to observe and study luminaries include Pythagoras, Aristotle, Claudius Ptolemy, al-Khwarizmi, Nicolaus Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, Galileo Galilei, and Johannes Kepler.