Summary of the last lecture

❑ Geological processes → compositional layering in planetary bodies

❑ Geological processes → Modification of layering
❑ Role of asteroidal impacts
❑ Mass extinction events in the ‘stratigraphic time scale’
o Indicators of impacts in the past
❑ Role of impacts today
❑ Compositional layering
o Bowen Reaction Series (Differentiation)
o Elements availability (Raw material)
o Relevance of elements not always proportional
to abundance
o REEs – Geopolitics!

ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra (Credit: Martinez et al., 2017) 1

Structure of the Earth: Crust
Crust

❑ 8 elements make 99% of the

Earth’s crust
❑ Crustal composition: Si & Al-rich

ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 2

 Mineralogy of the Earth’s Crust
❑ Silicates rule Earth’s crust! (Today*)
~ 92% of the crust formed by silicates

❑ What is the implication for mineralogical

diversity?

❑ Is that the case for other planetary

bodies?

* Has that always been the case since the formation of the Earth?
Common minerals in the Earth’s Crust

ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 3

Rock Forming Silicates

ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 4

 Rock Forming Silicates
❑ Nesosilicates/Orthosilicates
Independent SiO4 tetrahedra
❑ Sorosilicates
‘Two’ SiO4 groups are linked
❑ Cyclosilicates/Ring Silicates

‘More than two’ SiO4 tetrahedra forming

closed ring-like structures
❑ Inosilicates
Infinite single/double chains

ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 5

 Rock Forming Silicates
❑ Phyllosilicates
Sheet Silicates. ‘Three’ of the oxygen in
tetrahedra are shared between adjoining
SiO4 tetrahedra

❑ Tectosilicates
All ‘four’ of the oxygen in tetrahedra are
shared between adjoining SiO4 tetrahedra

ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 6

 Planetary Evolution
The Role of Impacts

(Video Link: https://youtu.be/lFoLtcAVYpY) ES311A/Fall 2022/IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 7

 Smoke/Dust trail of Chelyabinsk Meteoroid

Chelyabinsk event (2013)

Size: ~20 m (7-storey building)
Modern day impacts Weight: ~ 10,000 Tonnes
Velocity: 20 km/s
People hurt: >1000
(Image credit: M. Ahmetvaleev) Largest recovered fragment : 650 kg

(Credit: Qingzhu Yin, UC-Davis)

(Watch: https://youtu.be/-qZ6oiaSm00)

(Watch: https://youtu.be/-qZ6oiaSm00)
(Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1TL_jaVijY) ES683A /Fall 2021 / IIT Kanpur/Deepak Dhingra 8
(Popova et al., 2013)