Modern Rocks

Off the coast of Saudi Arabia, in a shallow cove called Sharm Abhur, lies the wreckage of a 100-year-old ship. When it sank, it was carrying tin blocks destined to become cups and other metal goods. Instead, the lost cargo led to the creation of something even more remarkable.

Geologists studying the blocks in the 1980s discovered strange white crystals growing on their surface. The crystals had formed when the tin chemically reacted with seawater. The result was a mineral—a solid material with a specific chemical composition—never seen before in nature. The scientists called it abhurite after the cove where it came from.

Off the coast of Saudi Arabia is a 100-year-old shipwreck. It’s in a shallow cove called Sharm Abhur. The ship was carrying tin blocks when it sank. These blocks were going to be made into cups and other metal goods. Instead, the lost cargo led to the creation of something even more special.

In the 1980s, geologists found strange white crystals growing on the surface of the tin blocks. The crystals were the result of the tin chemically reacting with seawater. These crystals were of a brand-new mineral. A mineral is a solid material with a specific chemical composition. The mineral had never been seen before in nature. The scientists called it abhurite after the cove where it came from.

Abhurite isn’t the only mineral that humans unwittingly helped create. “It turns out there’s hundreds of minerals that only occur where humans had an impact,” says Robert Hazen, a mineralogist at the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington, D.C. He and his colleagues recently found that 208 of the over 5,000 known minerals exist because of human actions.

Hazen thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg. “I’m sure if we look carefully, we’ll find many more,” he says. Landfills with discarded batteries and computer parts, he says, would be good places to start the search. “When nature takes over and starts altering those materials, you get new crystal compounds that exist nowhere else in our solar system—and conceivably nowhere else in the universe.”

Abhurite isn’t the only mineral created by accident. “It turns out there’s hundreds of minerals that only occur where humans had an impact,” says Robert Hazen. He’s a mineralogist at the Carnegie Institute of Science in Washington, D.C. There are more than 5,000 known minerals on Earth. Hazen and his colleagues recently found that 208 of them exist because of human activity.

Hazen thinks this is just the tip of the iceberg. “If we look carefully, we’ll find many more new minerals,” he says. He thinks landfills are a good place to look. These new minerals often occur when things made by humans are exposed to nature. “You get new minerals that exist nowhere else in our solar system," says Hazen. "It’s possible these minerals exist nowhere else in the universe."