Mineralogy Research in George Rossman's Group
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences	2015-2016 Academic Year	California Institute of Technology

Caltech Collaborators and Students

George Rossman mineralogy	Dr. Ma Chi nanomineralogy GPS Analytical Facility	Dr. John Beckett meteorite mineralogy	Dr. Robert Housley new minerals	Bryan Hunter metal-ion spectroscopy	Carl Blumenfeld synthesis	Alec Brenner oriented crystal studies	Laurel Cheever Infrared Spectroscopy	Leo Balestri Calcite mineralogy	JD Feist mineral synthesis	Julie Lee Administrative Assistant

Current Projects in Mineralogy

1. Hydrous Components in Nominally Anhydrous Minerals
2. Analytical Calibration of the Spectrum of OH in Minerals
3. Spectroscopy of Minerals
        The RRUFF project
4. New minerals in meteorites and terresterial materials
5. Spectroscopy of manganese in minerals
6. OH in spodumene
   

Previous Projects in Mineralogy

1. Silica products of basaltic weathering
2. OH in crustal minerals - feldspars and pyroxenes
3. Nano-phases in rose quartz
4. The origin of green color in quartz from amethyst deposits
5. Martian Surface Mineralogy
6. Instrumentation development - tunable laser spectrometer
7. Undergraduate Research: nano-inclusions in minerals
8. Undergraduate Research: Temperature dependence of OH in minerals
9. Undergraduate Research: OH in tourmaline
10. Undergraduate Research: thermochromic garnets
11. Undergraduate Research: Studies of the rare mineral painite
    

Most-recent postdocs

Former graduate students

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 

Other Mineral-related science at Caltech:

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