Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks & Minerals (Paperback)

by Martin Prinz (Editor), George Harlow (Editor), Joseph Peters (Editor) "Minerals are normally defined as solid crystalline substances, formed by natural and usually inorganic processes..." (more)
Key Phrases: vivid interference colors, fuses with difficulty, texture granoblastic, System Monoclinic, Appearance Color, Components Essentials (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Practical, concise, and easy to use, Simon & Schuster's Guide to Rocks and Minerals contains everything that the rock and mineral enthusiast needs to know. This field guide is divided into two large sections -- one devoted to minerals and one to rocks, each prefaced by a comprehensive introduction that discusses formation, chemistry, and more. All 377 entries, beautifully illustrated with color photographs and helpful visual symbols, provide descriptions and practical information about appearance, classification, rarity, crystal formation, mode of occurrence, gravity of mineral, rock chemistry, modal classification fields, formational environments, grain sizes of rocks, and much more.

Whether you are a serious collector or an information-seeking amateur, this incomparably beautiful, authoritative guide will prove an invaluable reference.

Language Notes
Text: English, Italian (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 607 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster, Inc.; Sixth Printing edition (November 15, 1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671244175
• ISBN-13: 978-0671244170
• Product Dimensions: 7.4 x 4.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,816 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #4 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Field Guides > Rocks & Minerals
  #9 in	Books > Outdoors & Nature > Natural Resources > Rocks & Minerals
  #33 in	Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Geology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

98 of 99 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A good Field Guide, December 1, 1997

By A Customer

This is another field guide. Its introductory section is brief; most of it is descriptive. The advantage of this guide are its text opposite its color photos, so you don't have to flip pages to match them; they are already together! Included also in the mineral part are crystal diagrams. Text includes name, formula, system, appearance, physical properties (for minerals), environment, occurrence, and uses (for rocks, components). There are 276 mineral entries and 101 rock entries. This may be the only common field guide with a good rocks section.

Excellent color photos and an easy to use index. This is useful as a field guide, and as such may be found very useful for the geology student in the field, especially as it contains both minerals and rocks. -DMM

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best field guide to rocks and minerals., August 11, 1999

By A Customer

Of all the field guides published, this is the most completeand easiest to use. Excellent photographs & text with lots ofinformation. A good sturdy book.

32 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very useful field guide, May 27, 2001

By	Dr. Lee D. Carlson (Baltimore, Maryland USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

For rockhounds and beginning geologists, this book is a good overview. It not only gives a very long listing of the more popular rocks and minerals, but a thorough discussion of each along with beautiful photographs. In addition, the author does give a brief overview of crystallography that will serve well the beginner and motivates further reading on the subject. This part of geology and mineralogy is fascinating but can be time-consuming to get through. Even when not out in the field I have found this book fun to read in leisure time. It is packed full of interesting information and for the price cannot be beat.