Mineralogy is a subject of geology specializing in the scientific study of

chemistry, crystal structure, and physical (including optical) properties of

minerals. Specific studies within mineralogy include the processes of mineral
origin and formation, classification of minerals, their geographical
distribution, as well as their utilization.

Contents [hide]
1 History
2 Modern mineralogy
2.1 Physical mineralogy
2.2 Chemical mineralogy
2.3 Biomineralogy
2.4 Optical mineralogy
2.5 Crystal structure
2.6 Formation environments
2.7 Descriptive mineralogy
2.8 Determinative mineralogy
3 Uses
3.1 Collecting
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
History[edit]
Main article: History of mineralogy
Early writing on mineralogy, especially on gemstones, comes from ancient
Babylonia, the ancient Greco-Roman world, ancient and medieval China, and
Sanskrit texts from ancient India and the ancient Islamic World.[1] Books on
the subject included the Naturalis Historia of Pliny the Elder, which not only

described many different minerals but also explained many of their

properties, and Kitab al Jawahir (Book of Precious Stones) by Persian scientist
Al Biruni. The German Renaissance specialist Georgius Agricola wrote works
such as De re metallica (On Metals, 1556) and De Natura Fossilium (On the
Nature of Rocks, 1546) which began the scientific approach to the subject.
Systematic scientific studies of minerals and rocks developed in postRenaissance Europe.[1] The modern study of mineralogy was founded on the
principles of crystallography (the origins of geometric crystallography, itself,
can be traced back to the mineralogy practiced in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries) and to the microscopic study of rock sections with the
invention of the microscope in the 17th century.[1]

Modern mineralogy[edit]

Chalcocite, a copper ore mineral.

Historically, mineralogy was heavily concerned with taxonomy of the rockforming minerals; to this end, the International Mineralogical Association is an
organization whose members represent mineralogists in individual countries.
Its activities include managing the naming of minerals (via the Commission of
New Minerals and Mineral Names), location of known minerals, etc. As of
2004 there are over 4,000 species of minerals 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 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.