Minerals form the essential building blocks of our planet and the solid parts of the universe. They are also the source of materials we use every day: from building materials, to a key component of soil which is necessary for the growth of plants, to the raw materials we use for chemicals, in industry and for energy sources. Thus, minerals are important to each of us!
This course focuses on the formation, occurrence, and classification of minerals in the geologic context. We will undertake a survey of mineralogy from the submicroscopic (atomic) scale to macroscopic (hand sample) scale. We will investigate the chemical and physical controls on the formation and existence of some of the most important (i.e., rock forming) minerals. We will attempt to begin to answer the following questions: What are minerals? How are they constructed? Why are they so cool? Why do they occur? How do they occur? What are the systematics of their classification? What are the optical properties of minerals? How does the geologic environment affect minerals? All of these items relate directly to the study of rocks (petrology) and we will attempt to point out other applications in geology and society as we proceed.
Some important course links are given below:
