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Atlas reveals rocks with rare earth element potential, helping pinpoint new deposits
- May 22, 2026 at 9:00 AM
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A new atlas charts the global distribution of unusual, critical-metal-bearing igneous rocks, finding that they often form near the thick and ancient cores of the world's major continents. Researchers from Cambridge's Department of Earth Sciences mapped occurrences of CO2-rich igneous rocks—the world's primary source of rare earth elements—finding that their distribution is strongly tied to variations in Earth's rigid outer layer, the lithosphere.
Originally published at Phys.org