Caltech Students and Major Collaborators at Caltech and Elsewhere
Current Projects in Mineralogy
- Hydrous
Components
in Nominally Anhydrous Minerals
- Analytical
Calibration of the Spectrum of OH in Minerals
- Spectroscopy
of
Minerals
The
RRUFF project
- New
minerals in meteorites and terresterial materials
- Spectroscopy of manganese in minerals
- Intervalence chanrge transfer in minerals
- Benitoite synthesis and origin of color
Previous Projects in Mineralogy
- Silica products of
basaltic weathering
- OH
in crustal minerals - feldspars and pyroxenes
- Nano-phases
in rose quartz
- The
origin of green color in quartz from amethyst deposits
- Martian
Surface
Mineralogy
- Instrumentation
development - tunable laser spectrometer
- Undergraduate Research: nano-inclusions in minerals
- Undergraduate Research: Temperature dependence
of OH in minerals
- Undergraduate Research: OH in tourmaline
- Undergraduate Research: thermochromic garnets
- Undergraduate Research: Studies
of the rare mineral painite
- Undergraduate Research: OH
in spodumene
The Mineral Spectroscopy Server
On-line information on the absorption spectra and color of
minerals.
Information on the origin of color in minerals and gems
Data files available as ASCII (wavelength, absorbance)
pairs
[more than a thousand files]
Images of selected mineral spectra
Extensive references to mineral optical
spectroscopy [more
than 600 references]
PLUS
information on manganese dendrites [They are not
pyrolusite!]
information of desert varnish
information on ametrine [amethyst - citrine bicolored
quartz]
information on painite [ formerly one of the rarest
minerals]
Go to the
Mineral
Spectroscopy Server
Raman Spectra on the
Mineral Spectroscopy Server have been placed with the
RRUFF Project,
a project under the direction of Professor Robert Downs at the
University of Arizona, in collaboration with Caltech Mineralogy.
Numerous Caltech infrared ATR spectra of minerals are also being placed
on this
site. The RRUFF Project contains the largest collection of quality
Raman spectra of minerals available from any source. It also has one of
the largest (but still incomplete) collections of mineral ATR data.
Other Mineral-related science at
Caltech:
See a journey down a tourmaline
crystal:
animation through slices of Madagascar liddicoatite
last
updated 16-July-2024