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Discovery of an Earthborn quasicrystal approximant

  • Luca Bindi ORCID logo EMAIL logo , Louis J. Cabri , Marek Mihalkovič , Frantisek Laufek and Sergey V. Krivovichev
Published/Copyright: April 1, 2025
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American Mineralogist
From the journal American Mineralogist Volume 110 Issue 4

Abstract

Natural quasicrystals, compounds with characteristics intermediate between crystalline material and glass, have been so far discovered in extraterrestrial materials only. Furthermore, their occurrence in nature is limited to metallic, Al-bearing alloys. The presence of metallic aluminum in these minerals raised doubts about their potential occurrence in terrestrial rocks. The geochemical conditions needed to form metallic Al are so reducing that they are considered very unlikely in a terrestrial environment. Given the report of dodecagonal symmetry in the synthetic Ta1.6Te quasicrystal, the search for terrestrial quasicrystals was focused on natural tellurides.

Here, we report the discovery of the first terrestrial approximant of a dodecagonal quasicrystal, a Pd-Ni-telluride with formula Pd3Ni4Te8 and tetragonal symmetry, which was found as small inclusions in a rock sample from Kalgoorlie, Western Australia. Periodic approximants are crystalline materials that share a similar chemical composition with quasicrystals but have a slightly altered atomic structure, aligning their symmetry with the traditional principles of three-dimensional crystallography. These crystalline approximants provide insights into the local atomic structure of their corresponding quasicrystals.

Natural Pd3Ni4Te8 has been approved as a new mineral by the International Mineralogical Association with the name proxitwelvefoldite (IMA 2024-034). The Pd3Ni4Te8 composition has never been reported to form quasicrystal approximants among synthetic products and could indicate the possible existence of a 12-fold quasicrystal in the Pd-Ni-Te system. The discovery points to the possibility that the quasicrystalline structure may be much more common than previously thought, even in non-alloy systems.

Keywords: Quasicrystal; approximant; Earth; new mineral; Pd-Ni-Te system; crystal structure

Acknowledgments and Funding

The manuscript took advantage of the revision of Federica Zaccarini and one anonymous reviewer. L.B thanks the Space It Up project funded by the Italian Space Agency, ASI, and the Ministry of University and Research, MUR, under contract no. 2024-5-E.0-CUP no. I53D24000060005. F.L. thanks financial support through Project No 22-26485S from the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GACR). S.V.K. was supported by Russian Science Foundation (grant 24-17-00083).

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Received: 2024-11-11
Accepted: 2024-12-10
Published Online: 2025-04-01
Published in Print: 2025-04-28

© 2025 Mineralogical Society of America

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https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2024-9679
Keywords for this article
Quasicrystal; approximant; Earth; new mineral; Pd-Ni-Te system; crystal structure

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Magnetic collapse and low conductivity of Fe3N in the deep interiors of Earth-like planets
  2. RamanCrystalHunter: A new program and database for processing, analysis, and identification of Raman spectra
  3. Quantifying the potential for mineral carbonation of processed kimberlite with the Rietveld-PONKCS method
  4. Ferric vs. ferrous arsenate amorphous precursors: Properties and controls on scorodite mineralization
  5. Two modes of terrestrial phosphide formation
  6. Late-stage microstructures in Chang’E-5 basalt and implications for the evolution of lunar ferrobasalt
  7. Synthesis and characterization of Fe-poor olivine with applications to the surface of Mercury
  8. Macro- to nanoscale investigation unlocks gold and silver enrichment by lead-bismuth metallic melts in the Switchback epithermal deposit, southern Mexico
  9. Multi-analytical characterization of an unusual epidote-supergroup mineral from Malmkärra, Sweden: Toward the new (OH)-analog of dollaseite-(Ce)
  10. Titanite and allanite as a record of multistage co-mobility of Ti-REE-Nb-As during metamorphism in the Central Alps
  11. Unusual sulfide-rich magmatic apatite crystals from >2.7 Ga Abitibi Greenstone Belt, Canada
  12. Jianmuite, Z r T i 4 + T i 5 3 + A l 3 O 16 , a new mineral from the Allende meteorite and from chromitite near Kangjinla, Tibet, China
  13. Cabrerite, NiMg2(AsO4)2·8H2O, a new old mineral: The ordered intermediate between annabergite and hörnesite
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  17. Acceptance of the 2024 Roebling Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America
  18. Presentation of the Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America for 2024 to Fabrizio Nestola
  19. Acceptance of the Dana Medal of the Mineralogical Society of America for 2024
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  21. Acceptance of the Mineralogical Society of America Award for 2024
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