Mineralogy

Mineralogy is the study of minerals. ^[1] It is one of the oldest branches of natural science, and it encompasses not just the identification and description of individual mineral species, but the understanding of why minerals have the compositions and structures they do, how they form in geological environments, and how their properties can be used to interpret rocks and geological history.

Scope

Mineralogy covers several interconnected areas of inquiry. Crystallography describes the internal structure and external symmetry of crystals. Crystal chemistry explains how composition and structure are related and how chemical substitution produces mineral series and groups. Physical and optical mineralogy characterises the measurable properties that allow minerals to be identified in hand samples and under the microscope. Petrology applies this knowledge to understand how minerals behave across a wide range of geological conditions.

Modern Analytical Approaches

During the twentieth century, advancements in analytical instrumentation significantly enhanced capabilities for determining mineral compositions and resolving crystal structures. ^[1] Chemists and petrologists concurrently broadened the scientific understanding of how minerals behave chemically and petrologically within diverse geological settings. ^[1] The result is a discipline capable of characterising mineral compositions and structures across scales spanning from the hand specimen to the atomic level.

References

1. Nesse, W. D. (2017). Introduction to Mineralogy, 3rd ed. Oxford University Press.

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