Mineralogy

Knowledge and understanding: The student must be able to describe and understand the chemical and crystalline nature of minerals through symmetry, crystallochemistry and the main analytical techniques (X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence and crystallographic optics).

Applied knowledge and understanding: the course provides the student the ability to classify minerals based on criteria including the crystalline and chemical nature of minerals. During the course systematic mineralogy comprising a modest number of mineral species is introduced classifying the minerals on the basis of chemical composition, symmetry and structural types, framing the mineral species and groups within the geological contexts of occurrence. The aim is to highlight the impact of mineralogical knowledge on other disciplines of Earth Sciences.

Making judgements: The course provides the ability to identify and classify minerals and processes of mineral transformation. Crystal-chemical concepts are provided in order to be able to critically evaluate the stability of the most common solid solutions in rock forming minerals and polymorphic processes are explained. Both types of information are fundamental in the interpretation of petrogenetic and geodynamic processes.

Communication skills: Ability to illustrate problems and phenomena related to mineralogy and crystal chemistry as well as international mineral classification criteria, using appropriate jargon, symbolism, and English lexicon.

Learning skills: Ability to use the acquired basic understanding of mineralogy and to extend it to complete information in other Earth Sciences areas.