High-Pressure Mineral Database

A variety of dense polymorphs of elements, oxides, and silicates have been synthesized in laboratory high-pressure experiments. In nature, shocked meteorites are the most important source of high-pressure minerals, along with impact crater rocks, inclusions in diamond, mantle xenoliths, and ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) metamorphic rocks. These high-pressure minerals are difficult to characterize fully because of their very small grain size and low abundance. State-of-the-art techniques such as electron microscopy, synchrotron X-ray diffractometry, and micro-Raman spectroscopy, however, now enable the identification of such minute crystalline grains. As a result, many natural high-pressure phases of silicates and oxides have been discovered since the 1990s. The textural, crystallographic, and chemical characteristics of meteoritic high-pressure minerals provide not only clues to the impact events experienced by meteorite parent bodies but also insights into the structure and dynamics of the deep Earth. This website provides a database of high-pressure minerals in both meteorites and terrestrial rocks.