Mineralogy and Crystal Chemistry (B202)                                                           Fall 2008

Instructor:  Chris Oze (coze@brynmawr.edu)
Office:   Park 195
Office Hours:  F 1:30-3:30 PM or anytime my office door is open

Lecture Times:  MWF 11 AM-12 PM (Class officially starts at 11:10AM and ends at 12:00PM)
Lab: M 1-4 PM or Tues 1-4 PM
Places:  Park 259 (Lectures), Park 200 (Labs)
Text:  The 23nd Edition of the Manual of Mineral Science by Cornelis Klein and Barbara Dutrow originally by James Dana.
Materials:  I highly recommend that you buy a hand lens.

Course Overview:     The main objective of this course is to enable you to identify and interpret the most common rock-forming, soil-forming and economic minerals in hand sample. The study of minerals is important because minerals compose igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks as well as being essential components of soils, sediments, and even organisms.  More importantly, the proper identification of a rock requires the ability to identify its constituent minerals.  Naturally, identifying a rock based on its mineral composition is only the first step.  Ultimately, mineralogy is a subject that gives you access to how minerals can provide information about Earth processes and history as well as for biological processes, elemental cycling, and environmental issues.

Course Objectives:     
Mineral identification (~70 common minerals)
Class and major chemical constituents of each mineral
Reading and interpreting mineral descriptions in catalogued texts
3-D Point Group and Crystal Class of a crystal
Miller Indices and how they apply to crystal faces
Stereographic Projections
Crystal Chemistry
X-ray crystallography
Structural basis of the principle silicate minerals