Volume 14 of Reviews in Mineralogy covers a short course about the relations among the
microscopic structure of minerals and their macroscopic thermodynamic properties. Understanding
the micro-to-macro relations provides a rigorous theoretical foundation for formulation of
energy relations. With such a foundation measured parameters can be understood and
extrapolation and prediction of thermodynamic properties beyond the range of measurement can be
done with more confidence than if only empirical relations are used.The purpose of this course
is to consider the microscopic factors that influence the free energy of minerals: atomic
environments bonding and crystal structure. These factors influence the structural energy and
the detailed nature of the lattice vibrations which are an important source of entropy and
enthalpy at temperatures greater than 0 K. The same factors determine the relative energy of
different phases and thereby the relative stability of different minerals. Configurational
entropy terms arising from disorder also contribute to the energy and entropy. In transition
metal compounds there are additional energy and entropy terms arising from the electronic
configurations leading to additional stabilizations magnetic ordering and incidentally
color.Organized by Sue Kieffer and Alex Navrotsky the course was presented by the ten authors
of this book on the campus of Washington College in Chestertown Maryland. This was the second
of MSA's short courses to be given in conjunction with meetings of the American Geophysical
Union.
