This book is a printed edition of the Special Issue "Mineralogy of Quartz and Silica Minerals" that was published in Minerals

Advanced textbook outlining the physical, chemical, and biological properties of sedimentary rocks through petrographic microscopy, geochemical techniques, and field study.

The book will include contributions of the state of the art of quartz raw materials (deposits and properties) and their analytics. The chapters are presented by leading scientists in the quartz field. The presentations cover the main interrelations between genesis of quartz - formation of specific properties - analytics - industrial applications of SiO2 raw materials.

Minerals in sedimentary rocks emit characteristic visible luminescence called cathodoluminescence (CL) when bombarded by high energy electrons. CL emissions can be displayed as colour images in a cathodoluminescence microscope or as high-resolution monochromatic images in a scanning electron microscope. This provides information not available by other techniques on the provenance of the mineral grains in sedimentary rocks, and insights into diagenetic changes. The book, first published in 2006, begins with an easily understood presentation of the fundamental principles of CL imaging. This is followed by a description and discussion of the instruments used in CL imaging, and a detailed account of its applications to the study of sedimentary rocks. The volume is a comprehensive, easily understood description of the applications of cathodoluminescence imaging to the study of sedimentary rocks. It will be an important resource for academic researchers, industry professionals and advanced graduate students in sedimentary geology.

This volume draws together topics and methodologies essential for the socio-cultural, mineralogical, and geochemical analysis of archaeological ceramic, one of the most complex and ubiquitous archaeomaterials in the archaeological record. It provides an invaluable resource for archaeologists, anthropologists, and archaeological materials scientists.

The study of sediments and sedimentary basins in terms of their tectonic environment requires a multidisciplinary approach and has increasingly drawn both techniques and objectives from fields outside sedimentology. Studies presented in this volume range across a wide spectrum from the analysis of sedimentary sequence architecture at basin scale down to the chemical properties of individual grains, and include studies from a range of tectonic settings.

A richly illustrated survey of rock microstructures in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, from basic concepts to cutting-edge research.

Cathodoluminescence microscopy/spectroscopy is a powerful technique providing detailed information on the shock metamorphism of target rocks, biosignatures of meteorites and mineralogy of the pre-solar grains. Moreover, it can be used as an in-situ method to classify the solid-atmospheric-liquid interactions on the surface of Mars.