On Tuesday, January 10, at 7:00 p.m., we’ll be having our monthly meeting virtually, featuring…
The Uniqueness of Earth Minerals
with Dr. Scot Krueger
The details…
This month’s speaker is none other than our current president, who is going to speak about the amazing diversity of minerals found on the Earth, in contrast to the relatively small number of minerals known to occur on other planets or in meteorites. While there have been around 300 minerals identified from non-Earth sources, there are thousands of them found here. Why is the Earth so unique? It turns out that the answer to that question lies in many of the same reasons why the Earth is the only known place in the universe where life developed. This talk will start with The Big Bang and stellar evolution to explain why the elements we have grown used to in the chemical formulas of minerals are the most common ones. It will then walk through various key episodes in Earth history, from the formation of the Moon and an iron core, to the onset of plate tectonics, through the accumulation of water and the origins of life, each of which have an important impact on the composition of the Earth and the minerals it produces.
Scot is a lifelong mineral collector and has been a member of the Boston Mineral Club on and off since he was a kid in the 1970s, starting as a family member of his geologist father, Hal Krueger, a former president of the club. He went on to earn degrees in geology from MIT and UC Berkeley. After a brief stint studying earthquakes for the US Geological Survey, he went on to a career as an exploration geologist working for oil companies in Texas. He rejoined the BMC when he retired back to the Boston area in 2016, was elected president for 2022, and has agreed to continue in the role through 2023.