GPS

Mineralogy Research

in George Rossman's Group

 CIT
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences

Summer 2025

 California Institute of Technology

The Caltech Group

GRR Eron Helen Paolo Seneca
George Rossman

 mineralogy		  Eran Funaro

Intervalence systems		 Helen Evans

Intervalence systems		 Paolo Sanchez

Mineral Synthesis		 Seneca Velling

Hydrothermal system minerals

Summer Undergrad Research Students

Barata
 Goehringer
Jonathan Barata Stephen Goehringer

Major Current Collaborators at Caltech and Elsewhere

Chi Housley GlenWAna
Elena
  Will
Dr. Chi Ma

nanomineralogy
GPS Analytical Facility
 Dr. Robert Housley

new minerals		 Dr. Glenn Waychunas

Luminescence
LBNL		Anna Park


MBE crystals
Cornell
Elena Priesen-Reis

Intervalence
Mössbauer
 Dr. William  Palfey

H- in minerals

Current Projects in Mineralogy

  1. Intervalence chanrge transfer in minerals
  2. Benitoite synthesis and origin of color
  3. Spectroscopy of Minerals
         The RRUFF project
  4. New minerals in meteorites and terresterial materials


Previous Projects in Mineralogy

  1. Silica products of basaltic weathering
  2. OH in crustal minerals - feldspars and pyroxenes
  3. Hydrous Components in Nominally Anhydrous Minerals
  4. Analytical Calibration of the Spectrum of OH in Minerals
  5. Nano-phases in rose quartz
  6. The origin of green color in quartz from amethyst deposits
  7. Martian Surface Mineralogy
  8. Instrumentation development - tunable laser spectrometer
  9. Undergraduate Research: nano-inclusions in minerals
  10. Spectroscopy of manganese in minerals
  11. Undergraduate Research: Temperature dependence of OH in minerals
  12. Undergraduate Research: OH in tourmaline
  13. Undergraduate Research: thermochromic garnets
  14. Undergraduate Research: Studies of the rare mineral painite
  15. Undergraduate Research: OH in spodumene

Former Group Members

Visitors

Our laboratory facilities

Publication list including data files and figures from recent publications

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 

RRUFF PROJECT

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:

high pressure mineralogy zeolite chemistry


See a journey down a tourmaline crystal:  animation through slices of Madagascar liddicoatite

last updated  16-July-2024