Mineralogy. An introduction to minerals, rocks and mineral deposits / Минералогия. Введение в минералы, горные породы и полезные ископаемые

Literally, “Mineralogy” means science of minerals.

The term “mineral” was coined in the late Middle Ages; it is derived from the Medieval Latin word mina = shaft (minare = to mine). The antique people, e.g., the Greeks and Romans, only used the word “stone”. Special attention was dedicated to precious stones, distinguished by their lustre, colour and hardness, which were highly estimated by the old civilised nations already in pre-Greek times. The treatise De lapidibus (“On stones”) by Theophrastos (371– 287 bc), partly based on lost texts of Aristotle (384–322 bc), provided a wealth of observations and sound considerations on minerals and rocks, and on their practical use. In times of the Roman Empire, Pliny the Elder (ad 23/24–79) wrote his Naturalis historia that summarised the contemporary knowledge about minerals and rocks.

Minerals are chemically uniform, natural constituents of the Earth and other planetary bodies, like the Moon, meteorites and the terrestrial planets of our and other solar systems. With few exceptions, minerals are inorganic, solid and crystalline (. Fig. 1.1). According to this extremely general definition that will be explained, in more detail, in 7 Chap. 2, most minerals are also crystals (7 Chap. 1). They are the most important constituents of rocks (7 Chap. 3). <...>