Mineralogy for Petrologists: Optics, chemistry and occurrence of rock-forming minerals

Abstract

The purpose of petrology is to understand the conditions of the formation of rocks. The first stage of this approach is to describe and classify the rocks; that is the subject of petrography. Many characters can be used: density, hardness, colour, structure (on the scale of the outcrop), texture (on the scale of the sample or of the microscope), mineralogical composition, chemical composition, speed of propagation of the waves, etc. Among all the characters, the mineralogical composition is certainly the most important: it allows us to, more or less, accurately foresee the other characters and it can be used to determine the very conditions of the formation of rocks. Indeed, the nature and chemical composition of the minerals in a rock obey stricter laws, since the formation temperature was higher.