Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
ESS 437
Seattle Campus
Mineralogy
Symmetry of crystals and crystal structures. Rules of crystal chemistry. Microscopic,
diffraction, and spectroscopic techniques of mineral characterization. Transformation
processes in minerals: order-disorder, phase transition, and exsolution. Crystal
chemistry and phase relations. Reactions on mineral surfaces. Physical properties,
deformation, and creep. Prerequisite: CHEM 142; ESS 212; ESS 312.
Class description
ESS 437/537 Mineralogy
Credits: 5 [Lectures: M W 12:30 pm-1:45 pm; Lab: M W 2:30 4:20 pm] Instructor:
I. S. McCallum Location: Room 127 Johnson Hall
As a consequence of the restructuring of the courses required for the major in ESS,
required courses in mineralogy have been reduced to 5 weeks in ESS 212 (Earth
Materials). This does not provide an adequate preparation for students interested in
more advanced study in petrology and geochemistry. In ESS 437/537 we attempt to
provide a follow-up course that looks at minerals in more detail. A knowledge of
minerals is an essential tool for all branches of geology since the behavior of natural
materials is a direct consequence of the physical and chemical properties of minerals.
This class is designed to provide a comprehensive view of the mineral sciences.
Required books: Putnis, Andrew: Introduction to minerals sciences. Cambridge
University Press.
Nesse, William D. Introduction to Optical Mineralogy (2004) Third edition. Oxford
University Press. If you dont already have Nesses Introduction to Mineralogy
textbook, you should get this one.
OR Nesse, William D; Introduction to Mineralogy. Oxford University Press. (Most of
you will have this book since it is the same book as used in ESS 212. It provides an
adequate summary of the principles of optical mineralogy in Chapter 7 and the optical
properties of minerals is covered in Chapters 12 through 20). Either of the Nesse
books is required for all lab sections. This book is quite expensive ($108 new) but
there are abundant used copies available on Amazon.com for as low as $80 so, if you
dont have a copy, I recommend that you purchase the book through Amazon.