The Collector's Guide to Silicate Crystal Structures (Schiffer Earth Science Monographs)

This is another part of the Schiffer Earth science Monographs and is accurate and a good basic guide for studying more on silicate minerals. Great photos and a good variety of various types of silicates. It will be useful for collectors and those interested in knowing more about this species.

More technical than I was looking for,but great for students.

Silicate minerals are the most abundant minerals on Earth, comprising ninety percent of its crust. They are highly sought after by collectors for their beauty and rarity. Scientist seek clues to Earth's history through the study of silicates. In Silicate Crystal Structures, author Robert Lauf provides a framework for understanding the internal structure and classification of silicate minerals. He accomplishes this through more than one hundred photos of representative silicate minerals, diagrams of the atomic crystalline structure, and drawings of crystal habits. The book is exhaustively researched and well written and illustrated.Since the external form of a crystal is an expression of internal order, Dr. Lauf begins Silicate Crystal Structures with an overview of basic crystallography - symmetry and external form. He then elaborates on the internal order, or topology, which is the basis of the classification of silicate minerals. Before beginning the systematic descriptions of minerals, Lauf compares various schemes developed to organize and group silicates for classification. This passage and the related references are one of the more useful contributions of this book.Silicate Crystal Structures is most useful for its illustrations and descriptions of minerals within each silicate class. Lauf uses the same organization as that of the British mineralogists Deer, Howie, and Zussman in their legendary five volume work: Rock-Forming Minerals. Specifically those groups are Orthosilicates, Disilicates and Ring Silicates, Chain Silicates, Sheet Silicates, and Framework Silicates. Within each group are excellent photographic examples from the author's personal collection. While some have criticized Lauf for not using examples from other collections in this and other books in the Schiffer Earth Science Monograph Series, the reader should realize the author's research methods.Lauf has amassed a fabulous collection over several decades of collecting. Rather than finding the biggest or best of a given mineral, his collecting motivation is focused on finding the finest examples of the mineral or those that exhibit some key physical aspect. Therefore, the resulting photos of specimens in his collection serve as excellent representations of each species and characteristic feature of that specimen. This is reminiscent of the approach taken by the former American Museum curator Dr. Fred Pough for early editions of the Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals. Although Pough had access to one of the World's finest mineral collections, for the benefit of the collector, he chose instead to use specimens from the back rooms of the museum that were examples of things the average collector might encounter. As a museum curator myself, I appreciate the educational aspects of minerals as well as the aesthetic beauty sought for exhibit or by the high end collector.After reading this book, the collector or scientist will be better prepared to tackle an in depth study of individual mineral groups. The author has written more detailed descriptions of quartz and silica minerals, feldspars, mica, garnet, epidote, tourmaline, pyroxene, and beryl groups. More volumes covering reaming silicates are planned. I recommend all of these books, but Silicate Crystal Structures is the Rosetta Stone that will aid in understanding those other silicate group discussions.Finally, this book will be useful many: the rock collector, scientist, and the mineralogy student will all find this book a valuable reference.