Statistical analysis of mineral evolution and mineral ecology: The current state and a vision for the future

Abstract Mineral evolution, the study of the diversity and temporal distribution of Earth’s crystalline phases, posits that mineral species have diversified over the past 4.5 billion years as a result of varied physical, chemical, and biological processes. The complementary field of mineral ecology is the study of the diversity and spatial distribution of mineral species on Earth and other terrestrial planets. Research in mineral evolution and mineral ecology contributes to questions related to life’s origins and evolution, with the premise that the emergence of life required a sequence of chemical reactions. Is the origin of life deterministic or rather an improbable event? How did Earth form? Are we and Earth unique? And to what extent is the distribution of mineral species in Earth’s near-surface environment a consequence of both deterministic factors (common to any Earth-like planet) and chance events (frozen accidents)? Previous research has showed that the distribution of Earth’s mineral species conforms to a Large Number of Rare Events (LNRE) distribution: most of Earth’s mineral species are rare, known from only a few localities. In this paper, we describe recent computational aspects in mineral evolution and mineral ecology that attempt to shed light on some of the questions provided above. In particular, we focus on the statistical analysis of deep time events (billions of years ago) that relate to the co-evolution of the geosphere and biosphere. A new approach to mineralogy is to represent the distribution of minerals in rocks and ore deposits by mineral network diagrams. New ideas for the statistical analysis of mineral network data, will be given.