CRYSTALLOGRAPHY CONGRESS 2020

Mineralogy and Geology- Role in Crystallography

Mineralogy is geological resources of major economic importance. Most of them are crystalline which explains the important role played by crystallography in their study. Minerals may occur either massive or forming characteristic geometric forms known as crystals. Max von Laue discovered the diffraction of X-rays by crystals and almost immediately diffraction methods were applied to the structural characterization of minerals. One early success of X-ray crystallography was the structural classification of silicate minerals. However, application of X-ray diffraction was not limited to minerals. It was soon used for the structural characterization of molecular crystals as well and, later on, even of proteins. Nowadays, crystallography is commonly employed in many branches of experimental sciences such as physics, chemistry, biochemistry, and geology among others. Mineralogy is basically the science of minerals, which includes their crystallography, chemical composition, physical properties, genesis, their identification and their classification. Mineralogy is one of the branches in science of Geology and there are also related subjects such as Nano materials, material science, and metallurgy and Nano science. We have reviewed the historical perspective of the science of mineralogy, cited some of the evidences for the prehistoric uses of minerals and rocks, and described some of the principle applications of the science of mineralogy.