Minerals: A Very Short Introduction by David J. Vaughan. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2014. No. of pages: 137. Price: UK£7.99. ISBN 978‐0‐19‐968284‐3 (paperback)

Abstract

It is 35 years since I sat my finals, and over 30 years since I demonstrated my last laboratory classes in mineralogy and petrology as a graduate student. Since then, my main interest in mineralogy has been the calcite that makes up the endoskeleton of my beloved echinoderms. But, living as I do in the flat landscape of Noord Holland, I get great satisfaction in identifying exotic building stones and their mineralogy. In those 35 years, I have not read a book on mineralogy per se until now. In consequence, relatively little of David Vaughan's excellent Minerals: A Short Introduction was a revision exercise to my degree; so much is fresh that much is like a whole new subject. Minerals is well-written and adequately illustrated, although I would have liked to have seen more detailed figure captions and labels. Vaughan has a local proliferation of the royal ‘we’ in Chapter 1 (pp. 9–10) and uses that ugly tautology, ‘age dating’, once (p. 55), but these are the slightest of blemishes; the text is highly readable. The production is the high standard that I expect from OUP and Minerals is a convenient size to slip into a jacket pocket. If I have a complaint about Minerals it is with the reproduction of certain figures. All are good, but figure 4 should have reproduced in colour; for anyone seeing photomicrographs of a thin section in cross polarized light and a polished section for the first time, these are grey and a disappointment. Further, sections of several multi-part figures are printed over the page (e.g. figures 1, 3–6). With more careful copy editing, the different parts of figures could have appeared on opposite pages, which would have produced a superior effect. Unlike some authors, Vaughan has a precise feel for what his readers know and want to know. When I read ‘It is not my intention to devote space to reviewing the theory of plate tectonics’ (p. 46), I knew I was reading a book in touch with its readership. The first four chapters – ‘The mineral world’, ‘Studying minerals’, ‘Minerals and the interior of the Earth’ and ‘Earth's surface and the cycling of minerals’ – covered ground with which I was more or less familiar, but with new insights and details gleaned from technological breakthroughs over the past third of a century. Chapter 5, ‘Minerals and the living world’, would not have been covered by a degree course in the late 1970s, but subjects like geobiology are now important research areas; this is a fine overview. ‘Minerals as resources’ (Chapter 6) similarly builds on my previous, rather limited student knowledge of ore minerals, putting ore concentrations into a firm plate tectonic context and looking at the importance of, to give contrasting examples, zeolites and the continuing enigma of the banded iron formations. But the most enlightening chapter was the last, ‘Minerals past, present and future’, which examines the origin of the mineral diversity of the Earth, the influence of minerals on the origin of life and mineral resources in the future, a breath-taking tour de force in just twelve pages. This is an inexpensive book that will attractive to anyone with an interest in the science of the Earth, but should be particularly accessible to undergraduates and amateurs. It represents excellent value for money and paints the mineralogy of our planet with a big brush. I give it an unqualified recommendation.