Minerals and the crystalline state

Course learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• give, with an appropriate example, the meaning of the terms phase, phase boundary and phase transformation, and interpret stability fields in terms of pressures and/or temperatures using a phase diagram
• describe and recognise, giving examples, various physical properties of minerals, including lustre, cleavage, hardness and density
• describe, giving mineral examples, the main differences between metallic, ionic and covalent structures and their type of bonding
• explain the significance of various types of defects in crystals
• explain the meaning of the terms lattice, unit cell, reflections and rotational symmetry, and how these relate to crystal systems.