New Hematite Growth Study Reveals Nanoporous Ellipsoid Formation

The European Journal of Mineralogy reported in 2026 that a hydrothermal process can create nanoporous ellipsoidal hematite with pores around 27 nm in diameter. The authors—Meirong Zong, Nshuti Cedrick, Wei Liang, Pinghua Zhu, Dongdong Liang, Haonan Liu, and Jiaxin Zou—showed that iron oxyhydroxides first agglomerate after 30 minutes, then needle‑shaped FeOOH forms at about 45 minutes before dehydrating into ellipsoidal hematite by roughly 120 minutes ¹.

Expert notes confirm the same sequence, noting that lattice rearrangement during the 120‑minute period produces the observed porosity and provides insight into crystal growth mechanisms.

In another study, Katherine F. Fornash, Charles Petty, Erkan Toraman, Gültekin Topuz, and Donna L. Whitney described a well‑preserved lawsonite eclogite from Elekdağ in Central Pontides, Turkey. They identified this as the tenth known locality of such metamorphic rock and measured pressure–temperature conditions near 500 °C and 2.3 GPa, higher than earlier estimates for the area but comparable to other lawsonite eclogites ¹.

Mahmoud Alkhatib, Nabil Thabteh, Fuad Al-Rimawi, and Mutaz Qutob introduced an attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared (ATR‑FTIR) method for analyzing aragonite‑group carbonates. Their technique requires no sample preparation and can serve as a rapid alternative to X‑ray diffraction. The authors developed calibration curves using absorbance ratios between peaks to quantify strontianite and witherite within synthetic mixtures, reducing variability caused by measurement conditions ¹.