Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals

Pricing

The third edition of An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals has been published by the Mineralogical Society and is available for purchase from the Mineralogical Society online bookshop.

The list price for institutions is £55

The reduced price for members of the Mineralogical Society is £35.

The reduced price for individuals who are not members of the Mineralogical Society is £45

Copies are also available for purchase from the Geological Society online bookshop and from the Mineralogical Society of America.

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September 2025

Crystal Viewer™ DHZ Special Edition

Originally bundled with the textbook on CD-ROM, we are pleased to now make the software available for download. This should prove easier for international customers, and allows updates of the software, as required. This is a special edition of CrystalViewer that includes the crystal structures of >90 minerals, as illustrated in DHZ. The aim is to provide that missing “third dimension”, with full three-dimensional manipulation and scaling and a choice of different model representations (ball-and-stick, polyhedral, space-filling, etc.).

New features in the 2025 edition of CrystalViewer™ DHZ

• Browser interface with interactive thumbnails of all minerals.
• Sidebar with quick-access to key mineral groups and cross-referenced keyword collections (e.g., Evaporite, Gemstone, Igneous, Ore, Pegmatite…)
• Streamlined viewer with multi-touch rotation and scaling, plus the ability to navigate from one structure to the next.
• All-new structure files, many of which contain multiple views showing different aspects of the same structure for enhanced learning.
• Compatible with Windows 10 and 11, or with macOS 10.14 and later up to macOS 26 “Tahoe”.

In this edition, most of the commonly occurring minerals of igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks are discussed in terms of structure, chemistry, optical and other physical properties, distinguishing features and paragenesis. Important correlations between these aspects of mineralogy are emphasised wherever possible. The content of each section has been updated where needed in the light of published research over the 21 years between editions. Tables of over 200 chemical analyses and formulae are included and a number of older entries have been replaced by more recent examples.

Major new features:

• Entirely new views of crystal structures in perspective using CrystalMaker colour images;
  Over 60 colour photographs of minerals in thin sections of rocks under the petrological microscope
  Considerably expanded treatment of feldspar and zeolite minerals
  Mineral identification table based on birefringence and listing other properties
  Colour strip with appropriate interference colours and birefringences for the main rock-forming minerals

This book will be useful to undergraduate students of mineralogy, petrology and geochemistry, especially those in third or fourth year, engaged in more advanced courses or specialised projects, and also as a reference work for students for ‘Masters’ degrees by taught courses or research. For doctorate students, and research workers in the Earth Sciences as well as those in Materials Science and other related disciplines, this work can be useful as a condensed version of the very extensive treatment presented in the volumes of the DHZ Series ‘Rock-Forming Minerals’, second edition.

To access CrystalViewer DHZ Special Edition, please send proof of purchase of the book to the Mineralogical Society’s Executive Director (kevin@minersoc.org).