Geology 301 - Mineralogy

Auburn University - Instructor: Dr. Bill Hames

Course Description

Earth, the planets, meteorites, and comets consist mainly of minerals. Minerals and assemblages of minerals are, therefore, a major source of information about processes in our solar system. Closer to home, minerals are many of the resources we think of as commodities and raw materials - thus all national economies, to a large extent, depend on mineral resources. Modern agriculture is dependent on various fertilizers and soil conditioners, and thus the ability to grow many of the foods we eat is dependent upon mineral resources. Many environmental processes, such as those controlling the chemistry of waters, are strongly influenced by mineral reactions. For these reasons, all scientists, industrialists, economists, environmentalists - and basically every informed citizen - needs to know something about mineralogy and mineral occurrences on Earth.

Mineral crystals are beautiful and obvious examples of the universe's inherent order and symmetry. The study of crystals has increased our understanding of the size of atoms, and how they are arranged in compounds. For these reasons, mineralogy can be an important enhancement to studies of mathematics, geometry, and chemistry.

Mineralogy is a foundation course for geology. Rocks are made of minerals, and the occurrences and arrangements of minerals in rocks gives us much of the information we have on Earth's present and past processes. Interpreting Earth's various activities through the study of rocks requires a basic knowledge of mineralogy.

The goals of this course are to teach students to:

1. have an appreciation of the relationships among the structure of a mineral, its chemical composition, and its physical properties;
2. be able to identify samples of the common rock-forming minerals in samples of the common rocks;
3. be familiar with the equipment and other resources available at Auburn and elsewhere to characterize and identify minerals;
4. begin to understand factors that affect the stability and occurrence of minerals and assemblages of minerals ("rocks").

Geology is a very "hands on" science, and we will spend much time on the examination of hand samples of minerals and rocks.

Because we will cover a rather large body of material in a mere 40 hours of lecture and 20 hours of lab, a tight schedule must be followed. The general class outline will be supplemented on a weekly basis with more specific outlines, reading assignments, laboratory assignments, and problem sets. You should expect to spend at least 5-10 hours per week on this course in addition to the lectures, laboratories, and field trips.

There are approximately 3500 known minerals, with more being discovered daily. Of the known minerals, we will study about 80 to 100 in detail, in terms of their structure, occurrence, chemical formula, economic and crustal significance. This can seem a formidable task - but no whining will be allowed. For an analogy, consider that chemists must learn everything about the 100 or so known elements; as the periodic chart is a device to group elements by common properties, we will systematically study minerals in groups based on their chemistry and structure. Beginning in about the third week of class, you will be asked to examine minerals in groups of 10-15 samples. There will be weekly quizzes in lab to help you along.

Scientists rarely work in a vacuum and seldom work alone. In encourage you to use all of the resources available to help you conquer the challenges of mineralogy. Mineralogy texts can be very valuable reference tools - you don't need to memorize mineralogical data if you know where to look up the required information. The bookstore has copies of Manual of Mineralogy, by Klien and Hurlbut, available for purchase. This text will be used extensively in this course and can be a valuable reference text for future use.

I also urge you to help one another in the lab, on take home problem sets and other assignments. Joint efforts are only a problem if the members of the group are not equal partners in the endeavor. Don't let other people do your thinking for you. (Note that there should be no consultation on "take home" tests.) Also, once you've careful considered a problem, concept, or idea, don't hesitate to ask for help from me. Everyone in the class will benefit from your voicing questions, both in and outside of the classroom.

Computers will be of considerable use in mineralogy, petrology, and many other geology courses. I will encourage you to use resources of the Internet, general programs such as Word and Excel, and mineralogy-specific programs in this course.

Mineralogy will be, for many of you, your first "upper level" underagrduate course. Mineralogy is not an introductory level course, and although it does not assume too much requisite material, the style of the course is dramatically different than introductory courses. For example, the text is a detailed and comprehensive resource that you can refer to over and over agian, not a topical survey. The down side of this, at first, is that the text will seem difficult to read. A second difference is that you are responsible for synthesizing information and understanding relationships among concepts. Mineralogy, as most geology courses, also requires visualization of 3-D relationships, which can be tricky. In contrast, most introductory courses emphasize rope memorization - you will be miserable in Mineralogy if you try to memorize your way through - so don't.

The study of minerals and geology is, after all, supposed to be interesting, useful, and fun.