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This was exactly the kind of crush Fei and his collaborators needed to get a small sample of bridgmanite, a mineral abundant in Earth’s lower mantle, up to super-Earth pressures.

The article, authored by a team that included several Sandia scientists, delved into experiments on bridgmanite conducted at the labs’ Z Pulsed Power Facility, or Z machine.

While one of the most abundant materials on the planet, bridgmanite is next to impossible to find naturally.

It can also be found in meteorites, said Sandia scientist Chris Seagle, who proposed studying bridgmanite using the Z machine.

To complete the study, the Sandia team partnered with the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C., where Yingwei Fei, a scientist and co-author of the article, makes bridgmanite in a lab.