A first-of-its-kind Cambridge exhibition will let visitors wrestle with the extraordinary power of rare-earth magnets and discover the amazing rocks from Greenland that contain rare-earth elements (REEs).
The presence of significant REE deposits in Greenland is in part why the country has been thrust into the geopolitical and media spotlight in recent months.
Around 10 times stronger than ordinary magnets, rare-earth magnets – which contain REEs that are extracted from minerals found in crystallised magma – are key components in a range of medical, defence, and electronic applications. They are being used to design developing technologies – for example, the next generation of quantum computers – and are also integral to wind turbines and electric vehicles, making them vital for the green energy transition.
Their power comes from a quantum mechanical property called ‘spin-orbit coupling’, which locks all the magnetic atoms firmly in one direction to focus the magnet, and which visitors can test their strength against on a wheel connected to a rare-earth magnet.
The REE-bearing rocks on display were collected from Greenland by a team of Cambridge University Earth Scientists who worked with colleagues at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences to design the interactive From Magma to Magnets exhibition. The display also offers visitors the chance to explore the stunning optical properties of some unique minerals under ultraviolet light, using the same techniques used by geologists to identify them in the field.
Top: Researchers and curators Dr Carrie Soderman, Professor Owen Weller‑Gibbs, and Dr Corinne Frigo. Below: Greenland rock samples fluorescing under UV light (left) and shown alongside scanning electron microscope images (right).
Exhibition curators Professor Owen Weller-Gibbs and Drs Carrie Soderman and Corinne Frigo – whose research with a range of collaborators in southern Greenland is investigating the magmatic enrichment of metals, and what controls it – say the exhibition is a unique opportunity to find out why REEs are so vital in our everyday lives, and why they are suddenly receiving so much attention.
Professor Weller-Gibbs said: “Rare-earth magnets are more than 10 times as strong as fridge magnets, and that’s one of the reasons these elements are so in demand by different emerging industries – because they make technology much lighter and stronger. Most of the world’s supply and production of rare earth elements is in China, which has geopolitical implications, and there is a huge demand for diversifying supplies.
“Greenland is this beautiful natural laboratory to understand the formation of REE-bearing minerals in ancient ‘frozen’ magma chambers, and we wanted the exhibition to give people a real feel for the power of these amazing materials – and also, how vital they are if we want to carry on developing green technologies in particular.”
Dr Soderman said: “The media coverage around Greenland has certainly made it easier to talk to people about our work – because all of a sudden, they can see how relevant it is to their everyday life. I think it’s easy to take technology for granted sometimes, to lose the connection between the phone in your hand and the raw materials in the ground that make it possible. So, it’s great to have these conversations, and to see how much people care when you talk about the need to be clever and sensible about how we mine these rocks sustainably.”
The team’s work focuses on a group of layered magma chambers in southern Greenland that formed about 1.1 billion years ago, and the exhibition will give visitors a taste of their life as researchers across the island’s dramatic landscape. Because Greenland has very few roads, much of the travel is by boat, and so the team relies on the skills of local sailors to navigate the iceberg-strewn fjords. Because the region is so vast, they make 3-4 camps per expedition, refilling their empty food boxes with rocks, while all the time keeping an eye out for polar bears.
From Magma to Magnets opens at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences with a special event on Thursday, 26 February at 5.30pm.
A Cambridge Festival ‘hands-on’ family event covering the Greenland researchers’ work will also take place on Saturday, 28 March. More information here.
Read the original story by Stephen Bevan here.
All images credit Lloyd Mann.