Geology 2311: Mineralogy
Fall, 2007

Contact Information
Lectures
Labs
Grading
Non-silicates Silicates
Exams
Powerpoint
Optical Mineral Clips
Adopt a Mineral
Links
Home

Note: Because this is a class in mineralogy, one of the ultimate goals is to teach you how to identify minerals, and have you learn a group of minerals that you can identify without the aid of determinative tables. However I have not designated very much lab time to strictly learning minerals in hand specimen, rather you will be responsible for learning some of them on your own. During each lab period we suggest you take 10 to 15 minutes to learn 4 minerals. I have given you two labs to work with the minerals themselves. After 8 weeks you should know all the minerals on the list. You will take a lab test in week 7 of the semester and you must pass it with a minimum of 70%. You can take the test a maximum of three times to reach this goal.
Labs are due one week after the conclusion of the exercise.
You will lose 10% of your grade per day that your lab is late.

 

Week 1	Sept. 4/6	Remembering Minerals Recalculating mineral compositions, Plotting Mineral Composition Download a Periodic Table Handouts: Distribution of the elements; PDFN; Mineral Calculations;	5
Week 2	Sept. 11/13	Identifying minerals using physical properties , Power Point Presentations Color, Physical Properties Form	10
Week 3	Sept. 18	Crystal Chemistry	5
	Sept. 20	Review of Minerals
Week 4	Sept. 25/27	Crystal symmetry and crystal systems	5
Week 5	Oct. 2	Indexing Crystals	5
	Oct. 4	Forms: Using the program SHAPE Notation for Shape	5
Week 6	Oct. 9	Trip on Blue Heron to collect sediment samples
	Oct. 11	Mineral Quiz I	grading
Week 7	Oct. 16	X-ray Diffraction (in class lab)	5
	Oct. 18	Xray Diffraction Unknowns--sign up for a time with Penny or TA	5
Week 8	Oct.23	Silicates/non-silicates lab test --you must pass this with 70%	grading
	Oct. 25	Revisiting Compositions of Silicate Minerals: recalculating complicated formulas	5
Week 9	Oct. 30	Mineral Retake if necessary	grading
	Nov. 1	Common Minerals under the microscope	10
Week 10	Nov. 6	Common Minerals under the microscope
	Nov. 8	Anisotropic minerals-pleochroism, interference colors, extinction, elongation	10
Week 11	Nov. 13	Anisotropic minerals-pleochroism, interference colors, extinction, elongation
	Nov. 15	Uniaxial minerals - interference colors: determining optic sign	5
Week 12	Nov. 20	Biaxial minerals-	10
	Nov 22	Happy Thanksgiving NO CLASS
Week 13	Nov. 27	Biaxial interference figures
	Nov. 29	Optics Quiz I	grading
Week 14	Dec. 4/6	More on Biaxial Minerals-unknown	5
Week 15	Dec. 11	Plagioclase Compositions	5
	Dec. 13	Final Lab Exam	grading

 

Back to top

Page last updated August 20, 2007 by Penny Morton