ANTARCTICA: WELLNESS FOR PEACE: Mineral site key to Antarctica's history gets protected status

Mineral site key to Antarctica's history gets protected status | Health & Environment | Worldbulletin News: "Antarctica pact partners have set up a new protected geological site on the frozen continent in a bid to preserve rare minerals that could shed light on the region's history and evolution over millions of years.
At a meeting in Brazil last month, the signatories to the Antarctic Treaty designated the Larsemann Hills region of the continent as an Antarctic Specially Protected Area.
Geological analysis shows that one billion years ago, the nearby Stornes Peninsula was a shallow inland basin, rich in boron and phosphorus, the key chemical constituents of the rare minerals.
At the time of their discovery, four of the minerals - boralsilite, stornesite, chopinite and tassieite - were new to science, while the rest were extremely rare elsewhere.
"It's fantastic to see these extremely unusual, unique minerals being protected, and being recognized for their geological significance," Chris Carson, the head of Australia's Antarctic Geoscience program, told Reuters."



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