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Week 1: Jan 16-18
INTRODUCTION
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Examples of importance of mineralogy
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For seismology - understanding of properties of minerals
for interpreting seismic wave velocities (ex. olivine in the mantle)
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For petrology - rocks are made of minerals!
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For environmental science - minerals in soils; role
of minerals in regolith in controlling groundwater composition
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What is a mineral?
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Must be crystalline (has an orderly arrangement
of constituent atoms/ions)
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therefore it is a solid
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because of the specific crystalline structure there
will be constraints on the possible chemical composition (but may vary
within a certain range--controlled primarily by the ionic sizes)
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(substances that are not crystalline are termed amorphous)
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Must be naturally occurring
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(If it is man-made then the term synthetic may
be used, as in synthetic diamonds)
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Must a mineral be inorganic? Some textbooks say
yes, others do not. Since some rocks consist entirely of crystalline substances
formed by inorganic processes (ex. aragonite/calcite in limestones), it
seems we should not deny them the status of being a mineral. So we will
follow
your textbook, Nesse, and not require that minerals
be inorganic.
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A mineraloid is a naturally occurring substance
that is amorphous. Examples are opal and amber.
CRYSTALLOGRAPHY
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Translational symmetry
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plane lattices and the 5 unit meshes
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space lattices and the unit cell
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14 Bravais lattices
Mineralogy
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