I have been observing even in the high reputable journals, most research on petrology and ore geology emphasis are laid much on discrimination plots without proper correlation between the mineralogy of the rocks and the chemistry. Even the discrimination plots itself has its own limitations.
I am appealing to our teachers and experts in the field of petrology and mineralogy to train us more on the mineralogical aspect. I must confess as a young geoscientist most of us cannot even identify major rock forming minerals in thinsection and their optical properties.
The future of mineralogy is at stake....#my opinion#
I certainly agree with your concern.
it may not be totally true but certainly there are more and more papers based on geochemical plots and discrimination diagrams rather than on pure mineralogy/ paragenesis... It is like old school now.
not many papers really cares about the mineral assemblages/ alterations/ textural relations/ inclusions/ sequence of events...etc in the rock.
it's about isotopes, ratios, trace elements, REE patterns.
simple petrology with mineral assemblage, their mutual relations stands nowhere in literature now.
software like IGPET and ROCK WORKS.. made easy study of rocks.
One has to study rocks in terms of its minerals and ores first to understand the genesis, I feel.
Mineralogy is an important aspect of Petrology and Rock Physics. Lots of paper exists in the public domain which are self explanatory. Grainology, textures, colour, hardness, assemblage, fluid inclusion are some of the important aspects which should studied and applied. Many technical courses run in good academic institutes.
Dear Mr. Bute:
It is surprising and promising all in one for me to see an issue like that addressed by a young colleague. I have been training and mentoring young colleagues from all four corners of the globe in applied geosciences. A great deal of the time during training we spent in the field where the "patient" of our discipline "rock and minerals" are centerpiece of the field seminar. No dogmatic approach has been taken in this case the geoscientific doctrine is subject to variation but guiding the six senses is paramount broadening the knowledge and the practical experience of the trainee so as to be used from the field work to drafting the paper. I know that there are persons shifting the classroom into the field debating about diagrams and isotopes at outcrop and let slip the opportunity to have a closer look at the rock composition and its structural and textural features. You can start capturing digital data in the field to solve a wide range of issues and you can even use triplots and x-y plots in the field on your laptop but it is your eye-sight and your personal database in your head which are second to none.
I am skeptical that we can turn back the clock and we must make use of time- and cost-saving methods of the digital world but we need not go the wrong way or better walk into a dead-end road to only write and publish papers about the so-called highly - sophisticated methods whatever it may be. Every medical treatment starts with consulting the GP and not with an open-heart surgery. Medical men prefer today a holistic approach, so do I. I am currently writing a paper based on a lot of field samples described in the classical way of a field geologist as to their mineralogy and petrography as well as structural geology. I use software programs for statistical treatments in whatever way the ease my work but no binary or ternary plots for interpreting the environment of formation or the geodynamic setting.
It is a geoscientific tightrope walk to consider on one side the ethics and basics of our discipline and on the other side the common trends which we can hardly escape from. However, we should have an open attitude but also a keen eye on the wording “The show must go on”.
Two review papers may underscore my philosophy of life in geosciences based on the three pillars Geology(including geophysics if possible) Þ Mineralogy Þ Geochemistry:
DILL, H.G. (2010) The “chessboard” classification scheme of mineral deposits: Mineralogy and geology from aluminum to zirconium.- Earth Science Reviews, 100: 1-420.
DILL, H.G., BUZATU A., and MAFTEI A.E. (2017) Capturing digital data with handheld devices to determine the redox regime, lithology and provenance of siliciclastic sediments and residual deposits - A review and field manual.- Arabian Journal of Geosciences 10: 188-217 (plus supplementary data).
I wish you all the best
H.G.Dill
The main problem of mineralogy is the effort for each individual of us, to grasp the infinite complexity even at the beginning.
It simply goes off with the following indispensable prerequisites:
Are adequate teaching collections available?
Are adequate, experienced teachers available?
Are adequate spaces available with appropriate equipment?
Are adequate field work and excursions available?
Is the project of adequate mineralogy supported by the institution (administration)?
The relatively small study of mineralogy is becoming increasingly unimportant compared to the overpowering such as Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Mathematics, Geography, Economics, etc.
The fact is: no more time, no more money, no more people, no more knowledge, no more interest in many, many places all over the world.
I had the incredible luck 52 years ago to have met all of the above mentioned conditions (see and compare my publication list on ResearchGate).
I am sorry that I am very pessimistic about the future of mineralogy.
Most people around the world are acting according to the motto:
"What I do not know does not exist!"
What should we do? What do you want to do?
Best regards, and despite all this good luck!
Guenter Grundmann
Hi colleagues
I agree that more and more geologists tend to use exclusively geochemical tools to provide information on the geological processes. More and more geologists tend to introduce a rock into a machine to sort some numbers, that can be toxic as a poisonous mushroom if they are not supported by textural information. Thin/polished section petrography is one of the most powerful tools for the geologists, and I do not understand why is more and more forgotten. The geochemical results are correct ONLY if they are really representative of a process. The petrographic data is the best tool to check the representativity of these analyses, i.e., if there are mixtures of processes (hydrothermal alteration, supergene processes, magma mingling, etc). I find many publications without petrography, and in some journals petrographic analysis tend to be send as "complementary material". This is absolutely erroneous. Probably all has been produced by the idea that Petrography is a tool from the XIX century and at the present moment there are more tools to identify the minerals. This can be partly correct, but
a) these tools are expensive, time-consuming and are not available to all people
b) many of these tools are not suitable to identify all the minerals (I.e. there is not a raman database of all the mineral species)
c) THE MOST IMPORTANT: petrography is a tool not only to identify minerals but also to identify textures and mineral relationships and therefore, mineral sequences. Yes, the same can be made and in some cases MUST be made with SEM-EDS, but optical petrography helps to orientate the SEM study and win time and save money.
I agree with Dr. Grundmann that there are some problems concerning the lack of adequate collections and adequate teachers. What to do? An example. We have a project to prepare collections of mineralogy for teaching, "cloned" to those used in the Mineralogy teaching at the University of Barcelona, that could be sent FREE to universities in other countries. At this time, we are preparying a collection to be sent to Mexico. Are you interested on this project? I can provide information on it.
Joan Carles Melgarejo
Fac. Ciències de la Terra
Universitat de Barcelona
c/Martí i Franquès s/n
08028 Barcelona
Catalonia
While appreciating the concern on the importance of mineralogy, it is not completely true that "mineralogy is at stake". Without mineralogy how anybody can teach or explain petrology and ores. May be some Universities/institutions not teaching its students properly through field and lab demonstrations due to various reasons, but that does not mean the importance of "mineralogy" is eroding. In the Mysore University, India, where I studied, the Department of Geology is having a separate section called "Mineralogical Institute" for furthering research. The Department also has established "Mineralogical Society of India".
There is International Mineralogical Association to promote/address the interests of Mineralogists.
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