Crystallography: Introduction to the Study of Minerals

This textbook presents an extensive manual of crystallography, including geometric crystallography, crystallochemistry, and crystallophysics. Illustrated with a wealth of figures and diagrams, it offers a thorough introduction to crystals for undergraduate and graduate students interested in learning the essentials and advanced concepts of crystallography.

The book begins with basic concepts such as the geometry, morphology and symmetry of lattices, allowing readers to approach the subject from a mathematical point of view, abstracting it from its material content. In turn, the second part focuses on crystallochemistry and explains the differences between ideal and real crystals, and between static and dynamic ones. The third part of the textbook concerns crystallophysics and addresses the electrical, magnetic, mechanical, elastic and optical properties of crystals, as well as the fundamental laws and methods of X-ray diffraction.