New Studies Reveal Nano‑Porous Hematite and Rare Lawsonite Eclogites

A hydrothermal experiment led Meirong Zong and colleagues to synthesize nanoporous ellipsoidal hematite. Iron oxyhydroxides agglomerate within the first 30 minutes, followed by needle‑shaped FeOOH formation around 45 minutes. As the reaction proceeds, FeOOH dehydrates and transforms into ellipsoidal hematite after roughly 120 minutes, a change attributed to lattice rearrangement that yields nanoporous particles averaging about 27 nm ¹.

Katherine F. Fornash, Charles Petty, Erkan Toraman, Gültekin Topuz, and Donna L. Whitney reported a well‑preserved lawsonite eclogite from Elekdağ in Central Pontides, Türkiye. The mineral’s bulk composition indicates pressure–temperature conditions near 500 °C and 2.3 GPa—higher than previously recorded for the area but comparable to other lawsonite eclogites ¹.

Mahmoud Alkhatib, Nabil Thabteh, Fuad Al‑Rimawi, and Mutaz Qutob applied attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy to synthetic mixtures of aragonite‑group carbonates. Their work produced calibration curves that quantify strontianite and witherite using absorbance ratios between peaks, offering a rapid alternative to X‑ray diffraction without sample preparation ¹.