The Minerals Encyclopedia: 700 Minerals, Gems and Rocks

Mineral collecting by amateur "rockhounds" has never been more popular. Old quarries, road cuts, and exposed landscapes are being examined by new generations of minerals enthusiasts. Each needs a comprehensive guidebook with clear photographs and accurate data. This is it.

In a thick but handy format, more than 700 different minerals and rocks are grouped by color (for ease of location in the book) -- blue, red, yellow, brown, green, white and black crystals; brown and gray sedimentary rocks; and meteorites for anyone lucky enough to find one.

Each has a picture -- four to a page -- opposite detailed but clear data:

• Chemical formula
• Hardness
• Color
• Density
• Lustre
• Cleavage
• Fracture
• Tenacity
• Crystal form
• Similar minerals and where they are likely to occur. And many will have a diagram of its crystal form -- up to four, for fluorite, for example.

The Minerals Encyclopedia is unusual for the number of minerals it covers: more than 700 in 448 pages, with a useful glossary, an introduction to mineral collecting, printed front and back flaps that offer quick reference in the field, and a measuring rule on the back cover. This is a superior reference for rockhounds, geology students and outdoors people with an interest in what's under their feet.

Rupert Hochleitner has a PhD in Mineralogy. His area of specialization is systematic mineralogy. Other research areas are meteorites (in particular those of the planet Mars), oxidation minerals and pegmatitic phosphate minerals. He has published numerous scientific articles and was for a long time editor-in-chief of the journal LAPIS, a specialist magazine for mineral collectors and mineral lovers. Since 1993, he has been deputy director of the Mineralogical State Collection Munich.