Learn Mineralogy

Smart mineralogist ships with a 'Learn mineralogy' section, which is another name for a miniature crash course on mineralogical terms you are most likely to encounter in your studies. It contains an introductory course on mineralogical concepts that are necessary for you to understand in order to make full use of the tools and resources Smart mineralogist has to offer. The guide can be referenced anytime, even if your phone happens to be offline. Discussed below is a summary on what’s included in each of its chapters.

The composition chapter aims to introduce the chemistry of minerals. The chapter will discuss atomic theory and why it is important in mineralogy, explain how chemical bonding allows for minerals to be formed, explain the differences between chemical and empirical formulae before wrapping up with molecular compositions and weight.

The text on atomic theory will introduce matter and atoms, the building blocks of every mineral. The succeeding text on chemical bonds explains how atoms combine to generate compounds of different properties, including minerals. Based on this foundation, the following text will concentrate on chemical and empirical formulae and how they are used to represent minerals. The final text on molecular composition examines what’s included in a mineral makeup one atom to another.

This chapter discusses physical properties of minerals. They are usually easy to identify with their deductions easily accomplished with a naked eye or simple tools. The chapter introduces these properties and their importance in mineralogy. The properties to be discussed are…

Color: as the perceived reflective light emanating from the mineral. The chapter will identify the different categories of color a mineral might have and the techniques used in distinguishing them. 

Streak: as the color mark a mineral left behind when scratched on unglazed porcelain. Streak colors are important mineral identification markers. This chapter explains how to use streak colors for mineral identification. 

Luster: as the amount and quality of light that can be reflected from a mineral and Diaphaneity as the amount and quality of light that can pass through a mineral. The chapter will contrast the differences between these two similar properties and further explains how they can be useful properties for mineral identification. 

Cleavage: as the 'splitting' of minerals along natural planes of weaknesses by the internal crystal lattice. Details on different types of cleavages will be explained while slightly introducing crystal symmetry. Parting, a similar property to cleavages, will also be discussed.

Fracture: as the tendency on how a mineral tends to 'break' under pressure. The text on Fracture will also explain tenacity, a mineral characteristic to resist breakage as a closely related property of Fractures.  

Hardness: as the mineral affinity to resist scratches. The popular Mohs scale is studied as a practical hardness comparison tool, while the more accurate Vickers hardness test will be studied when absolute mineral hardness is required. 

Density: as the measure of the mineral’s mass per unit volume; and Specific gravity as the ratios of an object’s density versus that of a liquid. The chapter details how density and specific gravity can be calculated and their use on mineral identification.

This chapter deals with properties observed when a mineral is exposed to polarized light. The chapter opens by discussing visible light and its properties, and how visible light interacts with matter, particularly minerals. Most importantly, the chapter discusses how light can be useful as a mineral identification tool, while introducing petrographic microscopes and their importance in optical mineralogy. Based on this foundation, the chapter will further discuss the three Optical classes namely Isotropic, Uniaxial and Biaxial and how to distinguish them under petrographic microscopes. Mathematical models on optical indicatrices will be introduced with purpose of understanding the Refractive Index (RI) Values of the fore mentioned optical classes. Afterwards the chapter will focus on two properties exclusive to biaxial minerals namely 2V angles and dispersion and how these properties can help further understand biaxial minerals. The chapter concluded with optical birefringence, a powerful color dispersion tool and its use in mineral identification.

All minerals, by their very definition, will form crystals. Crystallography is therefore, a branch of science concerned with the laws governing the crystalline state of solid matter. Since minerals are characterized by a defined crystal structure (i.e., all minerals form crystals), it becomes impossible to learn mineralogy without an understanding of crystallography. This chapter aims to introduce you to Crystallography and broaden your understanding of how minerals can be identified by their crystal structure. The topics discussed include…

Crystal symmetry: this section attempts to introduce the different symmetrical operations possible on crystals.

Crystal morphology: further expounds on how and why crystal symmetry occurs.

Unit cell: on this text, the basic building block of all crystals is discussed along with its supporting properties such as the crystallographic axes, weiss parameters and miller indices.

Crystal forms: The second part of the chapter concentrates on crystal forms, which depicts the various geometric faces a crystal can have. This knowledge is used as a foundation for the classification schemes developed by crystallographers to categorize crystals based on their symmetry and forms. This classification scheme is greatly detailed in the Crystal system, Hermann-Mauguin symbols, and crystal classes. 

X-ray crystallography: explaining the various ways in which X-rays can be used in mineral identification.

In every branch of science, new discoveries are a constant reality and minerals are not exempted. It can become difficult to learn and grasp the multitude of existing and new minerals without a system of organizing them. Mineralogists have often gravitated towards a set of organizing principles that are most widely known and recognized for the sake of consistency. The classification structure created by James Dwight Dana, named Dana classification and a class categorizing scheme developed by Karl Hugo Strunz called Nickel–Strunz classification, are the most widely accepted classification systems in use today. Each of the two systems attempt to classify minerals into an arrangement of similar composition and structure represented by an alphanumeric ID. This chapter discusses both schemes by evaluating their classification methodology, ID format followed by their strengths and weaknesses.