An introduction to the rock-forming minerals / Знакомство с породообразующими минералами

This major revision takes place some 25 years after the publication of the first edition. The intervening years have seen great changes in all aspects of the Earth Sciences, including mineralogy. There have been many improved and new techniques for investigating minerals, producing a new body of data and often a better understanding of their nature, properties and relationships. Such changes are evident in each section under which we treat each major mineral.
Crystal structures are far better known through the development of automatic X-ray diffraction methods supplemented by spectroscopic studies (infrared, X-ray, Mossbauer, etc.) of site preferences, and high-resolution electron microscopy revealing fine-scale departures from regularity of structure.
The chemical variations in minerals are better appreciated through the development of electron-probe microanalysis which is rapid and is done without separation of minerals from the rock. New techniques have greatly extended the range of pressure and temperature at which phase transformations can be studied in the laboratory. Geothermometry has been developed considerably as has the use of fluid inclusions to give information on temperatures of crystallization and genetic sequences. <...>