PETROGRAPHY AND ELEMENTS OF MINERALOGY M - Z

GEO/07 - 9 CFU - 2° Semester

Teaching Staff

EUGENIO FAZIO


Learning Objectives

The aim of the course is to give to student the basic knowledge both about the nature, physical and chemical properties of minerals and about endogenous geolocical precesses at the base of genesis and development of rocks; standards and fundamental methodologies for recognition, classification and nomenclature of common minerals and rocks. The acquisition of this knowledge, with applied activities, provide for skill in description, classification and interpretation of igneous and metamorphic rocks and in identification of common minerals in hand specimens.



Detailed Course Content

The course is arranged in lectures and applied activities and it is divided into three sets: The introductive one for a preliminary global vision of the endogenous geological processes, the second for the elements of Mineralogy, the third for petrography of igneous and metamorphic rocks. The applied activities concern crystallography, some crystallo-chemical aspects and studies of minerals and rocks in hand specimens.

Course contents: Internal structure of the Earth. Plate tectonics and the genesis of igneous and metamorphic rocks.

Mineral and crystal state definition. Morphological crystallography and study of external form with model of crystal. Structural hypothesis of Hauy and Bravais. Fundamental aspects of crystal structures, mineral stability. Crystal chemistry, Pauling’s rules, solid solutions. Descriptive mineralogy of common igneous sedimentary and metamorphic rock-forming minerals . Physical properties of the minerals.

The genesis of the rocks. Physical properties of magma and generalizations about its solidification. Igneous textures. Mode of occurrence of igneous rocks and their classification. Control factors of metamorphism. Textures, nomenclature and classification of metamorphic rocks. Metamorphic grade and facies.

Study of hand specimens of minerals and igneous and metamorphic rocks.



Textbook Information

  1. L. Morbidelli “Le rocce e i loro costituenti” Bardi Editore
  2. C. Klein A. Philpotts “EARTH MATERIALS Introduction to Mineralogy and Petrology “ Cambridge
  3. Lecture notes edited by lecturer, slides and more offered in Studium.



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