Special mineralogy

The Special mineralogy is that part of the field of mineralogy deals which individual with the discovery, description, distribution, analysis and classification minerals.

research object

Individual minerals or mineral groups are at the center of Special Mineralogy . After a new mineral is discovered, its crystal structure is determined. The International Mineralogical Association then decides on the recognition of a substance as a mineral. Later, special mineralogy deals with the study of the properties of a certain mineral and its crystal-chemical relationships with other minerals. She examines the formation of mixed crystals and the various modifications of a chemical compound, with the aim of creating phase diagrams .

Investigation methods

Crystal structures are determined using X-ray diffraction or neutron diffraction . For the creation of phase diagrams , thermo-analytical processes such as DSC , DTA or TG are important, often under extreme pressures and temperatures, e.g. B. in so-called Tuttle bombs .

Sub-areas

• Clay mineralogy
• Gemology

literature

• Klockmann, F. (1979): Klockmann's textbook of mineralogy. 17th edition. Thieme publishing house. Stuttgart. 371 pp. ISBN 978-3-432-82986-9 .
• Rösler, H.-J. (1991): Textbook of Mineralogy. 5th edition. Spectrum Academic Publishing House. 844 pp. ISBN 978-3-342-00288-8 .
• Martin Okrusch, Siegfried Matthes: Mineralogy. An introduction to special mineralogy, petrology and geology. 8th edition. Springer-Verlag, Berlin et al. 2009, ISBN 978-3-540-78200-1 .