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Who hasn't played with rocks as a child and been fascinated by the different textures, colours, shapes, and sizes they came in?
Who hasn't played with rocks as a child and been fascinated by the different textures, colours, shapes, and sizes they came in? Mineralogy and geochemistry are scientific disciplines that continue our fascination with the composition of rocks and minerals and explore the various behaviours and chemical processes that shape the Earth's crust.
These disciplines have enormous applications today. They are used to study the chemical elements in mines to better understand mining geosystems, the movement of contaminants in various surfaces such as soil, water, and rock, and the formation of petroleum and hydrocarbons, to name a few.
Do you have the passion and/or skills to make a career in this niche? Find out more on GoGeoGo.
As the name implies, mineralogy is a branch of geology that studies minerals. More specifically, it uses chemistry to determine and understand the chemical, crystal, physical, and optical structure of minerals or mineralised artifacts.
Minerals are of interest to scientists because they are extremely abundant, naturally occurring, homogeneous solids that have a definite and unique chemical composition and meet various human needs for metals, building materials, and fertilisers.
Because of the wide variety of minerals and their many uses, mineralogists work in many different fields. A few of these are listed below:
As we just discussed, mineralogists study the various properties of minerals to facilitate their extraction and use for commercial and scientific purposes.
The typical duties of a mineralogist include:
Geochemistry is the scientific discipline that studies the composition, internal structure, physical aspects, and related processes of the Earth's rocks and minerals, as well as non-mineral materials such as magma, organic matter and aqueous fluids. As mentioned above, minerals are still important in this sub-discipline because they have economic and commercial value to mankind and are needed for various applications.
Simply put, geochemistry applies the principle of chemistry to solve current geological challenges and gather critical information. Research conducted by geochemists is used in projects such as improving water quality, cleaning up toxic waste, and guiding oil exploration. Therefore, common employers of geochemists are research institutions, educational institutions, oil and gas companies, consulting firms, mining companies, etc.
Geochemists use physical and inorganic chemistry to determine the composition of chemical elements and spend a lot of time in the field collecting samples and analysing data.
While the day-to-day responsibilities of a geochemist may vary depending on the field, some common tasks may include:
As we delve deeper into the various earth sciences, it is also imperative to have a broad perspective on these scientific disciplines. Mineralogy and geochemistry (which we have already discussed), as well as others such as geophysics, are sub-disciplines of geology, which is a sub-discipline of earth science.
Geoscience, also known as Earth science, is a broad field that focuses on the study of the Earth. It has several sub-disciplines, each specialising in a phenomenon that occurs above or below the Earth's surface. It covers everything from the atmosphere to the oceans, from rocks and ores to water and ecosystems. Overall, it seeks to study and understand the processes that shape the Earth's surface and its natural resources, and how everything is connected.
Petrology is another field within Earth Science (and also Geology) and is rooted in the study of rocks and the conditions under which they are formed. As a discipline, petrology is further subdivided into igneous, metamorphic, and sedimentary, which correspond to the major categories of rocks. The focus of this discipline is on the texture, structure, occurrence, and distribution of rocks, and key tasks include their accurate description and classification.
Mineralogy is a subject that's widely studied at universities in Germany, both at Bachelor's and Master's level. These courses are offered either in combination with Geology (B.Sc.) or with other specialised sub-disciplines such as Materials Chemistry or Mineral Resource Management.
The Institut für Mineralogie at the Leibniz Universität Hannover is one of the most reputed institutions to pursue one’s interest in mineralogy. The Institut für Mineralogie Münster and Fakultät für Chemie und Mineralogie Leipzig are other popular names in this sector.
It is also quite easy to get a long list of universities offering a degree in Geochemistry in Germany. Much like mineralogy, this subject is offered either under the broad umbrella of geosciences or geology, or with other sub-disciplines or specialisations such as isotope geology, petrology and geophysics.
The Fakultät für Chemie und Mineralogie Leipzig is also highly ranked for geochemistry courses in addition to mineralogy.
Finally, we come to salaries. While there is aggregated data on the salary range for mineralogy jobs, there is little to no data on geochemistry salary ranges, suggesting that jobs in this field have a strong overlap with disciplines. Let's look at some of the disciplines:
A mineralogy professional starts at around €31,000 at the low end and goes up to €75,000 with more education and experience.
When we aggregate salaries across the geoscience sector, we find that the average salary is around €48,000, with a high of around €75,000 at the top end.
Finally, geologists have a slightly higher average salary of about €49,000, which also goes up to about €75,000, in line with other disciplines within the broad field of earth sciences.
In this article, we talked about geochemistry and mineralogy as two highly overlapping yet distinct sub-disciplines of geology that focus on the various properties and processes surrounding rocks and minerals. While mineralogy uses chemistry to understand the distinct structures of various minerals, geochemistry extends its structural and behavioural research to non-mineral materials.
Both subjects are studied in combination with other sub- or parent disciplines at the university level, and have broad applications in fields such as metallurgy and oil exploration.
Sound exciting? Click here to go to GoGeoGo and find your dream job in geochemistry and/or mineralogy now!
Does geochemistry help us understand climate change?
Absolutely! Geochemistry allows scientists and researchers to study and analyse specific geologic records, such as sediment layers and ice cores, to better estimate past climatic conditions and, consequently, make more accurate predictions about the future.
How is isotope analysis used in geochemistry?
Isotopic analysis is critical to geochemistry because it helps determine the age of geologic materials and provides information about their origin, past environmental conditions, and related processes.
Can geochemistry be applied to planetary processes beyond Earth as well?
Similar to geophysics, geochemistry helps develop strong transferable skills that can be applied to other celestial bodies to better understand their geological and chemical processes and answer critical questions about their structures.
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