A trader weighs gold nuggets at an illegal mine-pit in Walungu territory of South-Kivu province near Bukavu, April 5, 2014. Democratic Republic of Congo aims to double tax revenues from minerals but investors warned that an overhaul of the mining code cou
A trader weighs gold nuggets at an illegal mine-pit in Walungu territory of South-Kivu province near Bukavu, April 5, 2014. Democratic Republic of Congo aims to double tax revenues from minerals but investors warned that an overhaul of the mining code could remove incentives to invest there. Picture taken April 5, 2014. REUTERS/Kenny Katombe REUTERS/Kenny Katombe

A group of American geologists extracted a sample of the most abundant mineral on Earth and named it Bridgmanite. The mineral was nameless until now.

According to the New Indian Express, the mineral was referred to as perovskite. This was because of the rules set by the International Mineralogical Association which said that a mineral could not be given a formal name until and unless the specimen had been found so that it could be examined first hand.

The name, Bridgmanite, was given to the most abundant mineral Earth in honour of a pioneer in the use of high pressure experiments called Percy Bridgman. Bridgman used the experiments to understand the formation of geological features better.

The mineral, Bridgmanite, accounts to about 70 percent of the lower mantle of the Earth, which begins from 670 kilometers under the crust, and a massive 38 percent of the total volume of the planet. The mineral is made up of magnesium iron silicate of high density.

Since the mineral is present in the lower mantle and it is under the crust at a huge distance, it was difficult to find samples of the minerals. Scientists had gone through many candidates in the form of meteorites in the past but were unsuccessful. The reason they were unsuccessful was because the small amount of perovskite that was present was destroyed due to the technique called electron diffraction that the scientists used to look for the most abundant mineral.

A likely candidate, according to the researchers, was a meteorite that fell inside Australia almost a century and a half ago in 1879. The meteorite helped them find what they were looking for. The scientists used a technique that involved micro-focused X-ray beam along with electron microscopy to help extract the mineral. This proved to be a success as it was a less destructive technique.

The mineral that was extracted helped the researchers find out the sodium as well as ferric acid content in it. It was much higher than what they had expected it to be. The finding will help the researchers in geological research as well as provide them with information when collision of celestial bodies take place as well as about the formation of the universe.