earth science

Mindat.org

Mindat.org is a earth science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mindat.org rather than just read about it. In short: Mindat.org is a non-commercial interactive online database covering minerals around the world. Originally created by Jolyon Ralph as a private project in 1993, it was launched as a community-editable website in October 2000.

Key takeaways

Mindat.org belongs to earth science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mindat.org to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mindat.org from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mindat.org is a non-commercial interactive online database covering minerals around the world. Originally created by Jolyon Ralph as a private project in 1993, it was launched as a community-editable website in October 2000. As of 2023 it is operated by the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy.

History Mindat was started in 1993 as a personal database project by Jolyon Ralph. He then developed further versions as a Microsoft Windows application before launching a community-editable database website on 10 October 2000. After further development taking to the Internet stage, Mindat.org became an outreach program of the Hudson Institute of Mineralogy, a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational foundation incorporated in the state of New York. To address the increasing open data needs from individual researchers and organizations, as of 2021 Mindat.org has started to build and maintain an open data API for data query and access, and the efforts have received support from the National Science Foundation.

Description Mindat claims to be the largest mineral database and mineralogical reference website on the Internet. It is crowd-sourced and also expert-reviewed and curated for data quality. The database is used by professional mineralogists, geologists, and amateur mineral collectors alike, and is referenced in many publications. The database covers a variety of topics: scientific articles, field trip reports, mining history, advice for collectors, book reviews, mineral entries, localities, and photographs. Much of the information is from published literature, but registered editors may add and revise information and references. Editors are vetted for their expertise, in order to ensure accuracy. References have to be provided in the proper format, and editors own the copyright of data that they have contributed. The data is organized into mineral and locality pages, with links that allow for easy navigation among the pages. The pages about minerals include individual minerals and rocks. Naming conventions adhere to the various standards and definitions as published by the International Mineralogical Association, the British Geological Survey, and the Meteoritical Society. It interfaces directly with the Mineral Evolution Database (MED), and is an important source for scientific research. Many studies have used Mindat for locality information when building knowledge about diversity and distribution of minerals. As of 2021, it included:

Around 300,000 mineral localities Over 1.2 million mineral-locality pairs Nearly a million photographs Information on Apollo lunar samples and meteorites

Recognition Jolyon Ralph was awarded the Mineralogical Society of America's Distinguished Public Service Medal in 2011 for his work on Mindat.org.

References

External links Official website Mindat.org - 10 years online today (archived copy) Gemdat.org a related website

Illustrations

Mindat.org: Crystalline copper "feather" from Itauz Mine, Kazakhstan, an example of a photo from the Mindat database. — Crystalline copper "feather" from Itauz Mine, Kazakhstan, an example of a photo from the Mindat database.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mindat.org

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mindat.org claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In earth science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mindat.org before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mindat.org ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mindat.org

In research: Mindat.org appears in earth science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mindat.org in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mindat.org is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics American science websites, Internet properties established in 2000, Mineralogy, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mindat.org outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mindat.org in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mindat.org means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mindat.org out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mindat.org in simple terms?

Why does Mindat.org matter?

Because it connects several earth science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mindat.org?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mindat.org.