Customer Reviews

Encyclopedia of Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book gives a description of numerous rock & gem types, along with characteristics, pictures, geography, etc. Good book for someone just starting out in the world of rocks. However, it is not helpful for someone with prior knowledge. It is a beginners level book and a really good one at that.

This is a wonderful "coffee table" book; provides a colorful and easy-readable introduction to the identification and study of rocks, minerals, and gemstones. Stones are featured in alphabetical order and each gets a full page. Photographs of each in its raw (not cut) state are large, sharp, and well reproduced. Text describes the composition, uses, and source locales of each subject. An excellent guide for the new or "just mildly interested" student or casual reader. This is not a deep scientific tome for the advanced geologist or minerologist. It's great for a quick reference, or just for an entertaining browse in an idle moment.

I love this book. Two Thumbs Up!

As a graduate student in geology I collected reference books to help me better identify rocks and minerals. If that's what you're looking for I wouldn't really recommend this book. It has pretty cool pictures of rocks and minerals but I think it lacks in more detailed description, most of the minerals don't even look close to what most hand sample really look like. The pictures look like they were taken from a mineral museum. The rocks can be broken down further in my opinion, like most books, such as what makes a schist a schist, and the various forms of the particular rocks. More detail could be done on the minerals, more on their detail. The book just has the general rocks, such as diorite, gabbro, limestone, etc. It doesn't have some of the more harder to identify rocks like phyllite, eclogite, anorthosite, etc. It does however have a short description of each mineral's economic use which you don't see in most reference books. For an amatuer geologist, or someone who is just facinated with rocks, this would be a great book to buy. But for those in the field or studying the subject, this book won't help you much. If you don't believe me, take petrology and then try and use this book.