KATOL

Recently, some researchers studied a meteorite from Katol, Maharashtra which was from the meteor shower of 2012.
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon.

Important points:

Initial studies revealed that the host rock was mainly composed of olivine, an olive-green mineral.
Olivine is the most abundant phase in our Earth’s upper mantle.
Earth is composed of different layers including the outer crust, followed by the mantle and then the inner core
It was believed that we can reach the upper mantle if we drill for about 410 kilometers.
However, by studying the composition of these meteorite fragments, researchers have unravelled the composition expected to be present in the Earth’s lower mantle which is at about 660 km deep.
Various computational and experimental studies have shown that about 80% of the Earth’s lower mantle is made up of bridgmanite. By studying this meteorite sample, scientists can decode how bridgmanite crystallized during the final stages of our Earth’s formation.
Bridgmanite is a magnesium-silicate mineral, MgSiO3, the most abundant mineral on earth.
The mineral was named in 2014 after Prof. Percy W. Bridgman, recipient of the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physics.
As the bridgmanite of the Katol meteorite sample closely matches with the bridgmanite on Earth.
The bridgmanite in the meteorite was found to be formed at pressures of about 23 to 25 gigapascals generated by the shock event.
The high temperature and pressure in our Earth’s interior have changed over billions of years causing crystallisation, melting, remelting of the different minerals before they reached their current state.

Significance:

Studying the meteorite could also tell us more about how our Earth evolved from being a magma ocean to a rocky planet and researchers can unearth more details about the formation of Earth.
It is important to study these individual minerals to get a thorough idea of how and when the Earth’s layers formed.
Scientists can also decode how bridgmanite crystallized during the final stages of our Earth’s formation.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT

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