Mineralogy
Mineralogy is an
earth science focussed around the
chemistry,
crystal structure, and physical (including
optical) properties of
minerals. Studies also include the processes of mineral creation and destruction.
Historically, mineralogy was heavily concerned with
taxonomy of the rock-forming minerals; to this end, the
International Mineralogical Association is an organization whose members are organizations representing mineralogists in individual countries. Its activities include managing naming of minerals (via the Commission of New Minerals and Mineral Names), location of known minerals, etc. As of 2004 there are over
4000 species of mineral recognized by the IMA. Of these, perhaps 150 can be called "common," another 50 are "occasional," and the rest are "rare" to "extremely rare."
More recently, driven by advances in experimental technique (such as
neutron diffraction) and available computational power, the latter of which has enabled extremely accurate atomic-scale simulations of the behaviour of crystals, the science has branched out to consider more general problems in the fields of
inorganic chemistry and
solid-state physics. It, however, retains a focus on the crystal structures commonly encountered in rock-forming minerals (such as the
perovskites,
clay minerals and
framework silicates). In particular, the field has made great advances in the understanding of the relationship between the atomic-scale structure of minerals and their function; in nature, prominent examples would be accurate measurement and prediction of the elastic properties of minerals, which has led to new insight into Seismology|seismological]] behaviour of rocks and depth-related discontinuities in seismograms of the
Earth's mantle. To this end, in their focus on the connection between atomic-scale phenomena and macroscopic properties, the
mineral sciences (as they are now commonly known) display perhaps more of an overlap with
materials science than any other discipline.
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Georg Agricola, the "father of mineralogy"
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List of minerals - a simple list concentrating on minerals with Wikipedia articles.
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List of minerals (complete) - a more complete list of IMA-approved minerals, regularly updated.
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List of mineralogists*
List of publications in mineralogy*
International Mineralogical Association*
mindat.org mineralogical database*
Mineralogical Society of America*
Mineralogical Association of Canada
