An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals

An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals, by W A Deer, R A Howie, and J Zussman, is a book often considered the "bible" of mineralogy. It covers hundreds of minerals, with details of their structure, chemistry, optical and physical properties, distinguishing features and paragenesis. Entries range from one or two pages for obscure minerals, to dozens of pages for important ones like feldspars. The first edition was published in 1966, and a substantially expanded second edition in 1992. It is intended as a reference book for undergraduate and postgraduate students. It is a condensed version of a multi-volume work The Rock-Forming Minerals.

The book is colloquially known simply as 'DHZ'.

The ISBN for the second edition, published by Prentice Hall, is 0-582-30094-0

JZ, co-author of these volumes, was a colleague of Dr. Pamela Champness, with whom I collaborated on the "Identification of Asbestos", J of M, 1976 and who provided mineral standards which allowed me to create Cliff-Lorimer k factors for Analytical Electron Microscopy. These techniques are now used by what are currently described as as "nanotechonnologists" who can now achieve atom detection limits in AEM - my career goal. Graham Cliff.