Products of life on Earth: Some natural raw gem stones including amethyst, tourmaline, ruby and quartz.
Credit: iStockphoto
A key factor was the churning of the planet's interior by plate tectonics, write the authors, the process that drives the slow shifting continents and ocean basins over geological time.
Unique to Earth today, plate tectonics created new kinds of physical and chemical environments where minerals could form, and thereby boosted mineral diversity to more than a thousand types.
What ultimately had the biggest impact on mineral evolution, however, was the origin of life, approximately four billion years ago.
Unique perspective
"Of the approximately 4,300 known mineral species on Earth, perhaps two thirds of them are biologically mediated," says Hazen. "This is principally a consequence of our oxygen-rich atmosphere, which is a product of photosynthesis by microscopic algae."
Many important minerals are oxidized weathering products, including ores of iron, copper and many other metals.
Microorganisms and plants also accelerated the production of diverse clay minerals, the study says. In the oceans, the evolution of organisms with shells and mineralised skeletons generated thick layered deposits of minerals such as calcite, which would be rare on a lifeless planet.
Gary Ernst a geologist at Stanford University in California, USA, who was not involved with the research, called the study "breathtaking," and commented that the "the unique perspective presented in this paper may revolutionise the way Earth scientists regard minerals."
With the Carnegie Institution.
