Geology. Landforms, minerals and rocks. Minerals / Геология. Формы рельефа, минералы и горные породы. Минералы

If rock can be thought of as the foundation upon which all life on Earth stands, minerals are the foundation upon which rocks are built. Essentially, minerals are the most simple chemical compounds that make up rocks. This book is designed to take the reader on a tour of the various mineral groups, the unique characteristics that set one mineral apart from another, the features different groups of minerals share, and the roles minerals play in the rocks themselves.
Each of the roughly 3,800 known mineral types has a unique chemical and physical structure. Such compounds may be relatively simple, as in a deposit of gold (Ag), or they may be relatively complex combinations of several elements, as in the phosphate mineral turquoise (CuAl6(PO4)4(OH) ∙ 4H2O). Such combinations of chemical elements repeat throughout the mineral’s structure, and the mineral’s unique chemistry also drives a its internal physical structure.<...>