Aley

Mineralogy

This class is designed primarily to train students on the identification of minerals in hand specimen and thin section. For the latter, the link: "Photomicrographs of rocks and minerals" will be quite useful. There are also some excellent web pages for Mineralogy in general provided under "useful links for mineralogy".

Course Outline & Syllabus

Lecture notes

Introduction	Optics of Biaxial Minerals
Atomic Structure	Tectosilicates: Silica minerals & Feldspars
Bonding	Nesosilicates
Physical Properties of Minerals	Inosilicates: Pyroxenes & Amphiboles
Crystallography I	Phyllosilicates
Crystallography II: Crystal Classes	Cyclosilicates
Principles of Crystal Chemistry	Sorosilicates
Polymorphism & Polytypism	Oxides, Sulfides & Sulfosalts
Isomorphism/ Mineral formulae/ Graphical representation of mineral compositions	X-ray diffraction techniques
Crystallization, Reactions, & Defects	Gems
Optical Mineralogy: Introduction	Environmental Mineralogy
Optics of Uniaxial Minerals

Labs

Lab 1: Sulfides, Arsenides, Tungstates,	Lab 8: Conoscopic identification
Lab 2: Oxides, Carbonates, Sulfates, ...	Lab 9: Orthorhombic minerals & carbonates
Lab 3: Rock forming silicates (igneous)	Lab 10: Silica minerals, feldspars & feldspathoids
Lab 4: Rock forming silicates (metamorphic & sedimentary) + Specific gravity	Lab 11: Pyroxenes & Amphiboles
Labs 5 & 6: Crystallography	Lab 12: Metamorphic Minerals
Lab 7: Isotropic & Uniaxial minerals	Lab 13: Sheet silicates

Lab sheets

Hand specimen identification

Crystallography

Optical Identification

Last updated: Jan., 2006