Basic knowledge of crystallography, mineralogical crystallography in particular.
Principal methods of X-ray diffraction.
Crystal structure determination and refinement.
X-ray diffraction at non-ambient conditions. Crystal-chemical characteristics of the main rock-forming minerals.
F.D. Bloss (1971) Crystallography and Crystal Chemistry, New York.
C.L. Garavelli (1964) Elementi di Cristallografia Strutturale. Adriatica Editrice, Bari.
M. Buerger (1963) Elementary Crystallography. John Wiley and Sons.
C. Giacovazzo et al. (1992) Fundamentals of Crystallography. Oxford University Press (capitolo di Ferraris).
D.T. Griffen (1999) Silicate crystal chemistry. Oxford University Press.
C. Hammond (1999) Introduzione alla cristallografia. Zanichelli
A. Putnis (1992) Introduction to Mineral Sciences. Cambridge University Press.
Learning Objectives
Knowledge acquired:
Knowledge of basic crystallography and crystal chemistry
Competences acquired:
Acquisition of competence in analysis and description of crystal structures by the use of crystallographic software for structure refinements, calculations of bond distances and bond angles, crystal structure imaging.
Skills acquired (at the end of the course):
Competence in reading of basic crystallographic literature.
Crystal-chemical approach for the study of the behaviour of the main rock-forming minerals in relation to petrologic and geodynamic processes.
Prerequisites
Courses required:
Basic mineralogy
Teaching Methods
Lectures supplemented by tutorials and exercises in order to obtain a continuous monitoring of students' understanding
Further information
Language of instructions:
Italian.
Office hours:
By appointment
Type of Assessment
oral test and discussion on some exercises to be done during the examination
Course program
Introduction to the course. From the morphological to the structural symmetry. Space groups. Principal methods of X-ray diffraction: Reciprocal lattice and Ewald sphere. Single-crystal diffractometer. Measure and correction of the reflection intensities from single-crystal X-ray diffraction. Structure factors. Factor of atomic diffusion. Friedel law. Laue groups. Systematic absences. Unique space groups. Determination of space groups by means of exercises. Crystallographic software for the determination and refinement of a crystal structure. Graphic representation of crystal structures. From the chemical analysis to the mineral formula: cation distribution on the basis of the obtained structural data. X-ray diffraction effects collected at non-ambient conditions (high pressure and temperature). Olivine: polymorphs and their importance in the mantle. Garnets: unusual substitutions (e.g. Na in X) and their importance in the mantle.
Pyroxenes: unusual substitutions (e.g., K in M2) and their importance in the mantle.
Amphiboles: example of complexity in mineral systematic.
Micas: their role in the subduction slab and unusual substitutions.
Feldspars