Minerals: Their Constitution and Origin is an introduction to mineralogy for undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of geology, materials science, and environmental science. It has been designed as a textbook for use in a one- or two-semester course but gives students a broader view and covers all aspects of mineralogy in a modern and integrated way. It provides detailed references to important publications on principles of crystallography and mineralogy. The book is not only descriptive but for interested readers derives basic principles such as aspects of symmetry theory, background on stereographic projection, X-ray diffraction and thermodynamics, based on general background from mathematics, physics and chemistry. The overall goal is to emphasize concepts and to minimize nomenclature. The text includes appendices covering identification of hand specimens and optical properties. With the broad approach, the book is not only a textbook for students but also a reference for teachers, researchers, collectors and anyone interested in minerals. The book is written in a modular fashion that permits instructors to select or omit some parts, depending on the level of the course, without compromising the continuity.
Today mineralogy is not just part of a geology curriculum. The importance of mineralogy has broadened to a wide variety of disciplines, from igneous petrology to soils science, from archaeology to cement engineering, from materials science to structural geology. Our book provides an alternative to existing texts by focusing more tightly on concepts, at the expense of completeness, and by integrating geological processes and applications more closely with the discussions of systematic mineralogy.
The book is divided into six parts:
Part I deals with general concepts of crystal chemistry, bonding, chemical formulas, mineral classification and hand specimen identification.
Part II introduces concepts of symmetry expressed in the morphology and structure of crystals. It then explores defects in crystal structures and the diversity of features observed during crystal growth.
Part III centers on the physics of minerals. First it shows how to use X-ray diffraction to determine the structural features introduced in Part II. A chapter on physical properties is optional but is significant for modern mineral physics and geophysics.