The fundamental concepts of mineralogy and petrology are explained in this highly illustrated, full-color textbook to create a concise overview for students studying Earth materials. The relationship between minerals and rocks and how they relate to the broader Earth, materials and environmental sciences is interwoven throughout. Beautiful photos of specimens and Crystal-Maker's 3-D illustrations allow students to easily visualize minerals, rocks and crystal structures. Review questions at the end of chapters allow students to check their understanding. The importance of Earth materials to human cultural development and the hazards they pose to humans are discussed in later chapters. This ambitious, wide-ranging book is written by two world-renowned textbook authors each with over 40 years of teaching experience, who bring that experience to clearly convey the important topics.

'The Klein and Philpotts text offers the perfect blend of basic concepts with beautiful illustrations and descriptions of the essential Earth materials for introductory students in geology and environmental geoscience courses. The book is well written and advanced concepts that are introduced are appropriate for the level. This book is destined to become widely adopted in Earth materials courses in the new, more environmentally conscious Earth science curriculums.'

Chris Hepburn - Boston College, Massachusetts

'While maintaining the mineralogical and petrological rigor for which these two Earth scientists are well known, this textbook makes minerals and rocks extremely interesting even to those who don't already know that they are. This excellent textbook makes it is easier for students to learn about Earth materials by presenting rocks and minerals in the context of their geologic environment. Rock nomenclature is easier to remember, as it is presented in tandem with photographs of rocks and thin sections. I thoroughly recommend this textbook, and I am planning to use it in my own courses.'

Jo Laird - University of New Hampshire

'This book is outstanding! Clearly and engagingly written and magnificently illustrated (the cover alone makes one want to open the book!), this is destined to be the text of choice for Earth materials courses for a long time.'

Sheila Seaman - University of Massachusetts, Amherst

'This well organized and attractive volume fills an important niche by providing an integrated mineralogy-petrology textbook that can serve a stand-alone one-semester course or be used to provide the foundation for additional coursework in the discipline. Countless students have benefited from Kase and Tony's textbooks over the years. I am confident that countless more will gain from the new volume.'

Brandon E. Schwab - Professor and Chair, Department of Geology, Humboldt State University

'This well laid out and beautifully illustrated book is ideal for a one-semester introductory course that covers the basics of mineralogy, optical mineralogy and the petrology of igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks. The summary and review questions at the end of each chapter and the online resources are particularly useful for students and teaching purposes. I will certainly adopt the book for my course.'

Ralf Gertisser - Keele University

'This is a long-awaited text on Earth materials by two distinguished mineralogists/petrologists. The present book stands out among others in that it contains many excellent color figures and photos. I would adopt this book in my course carrying the same title.'

Yuch-Ning Shieh - Purdue University

'Klein and Philpotts’ Earth Materials is an outstanding text for today’s curricula. It is well written, logically organized, and beautifully illustrated. Indeed it is a fine capstone to the careers of two distinguished geologists.'

Dr Tomas Feininger Source: The Canadian Mineralogist

'… written by two eminent university professors, [this] is a remarkable assemblage of all information needed for a solid foundation in mineralogy and petrology. Students of these subjects will find this an important and all-inclusive reference in studying the major rock groups and the chemistry of minerals … the serious mineral collector can also gain a useful and sound understanding of the earth sciences from this informative work … intended for serious students and will serve very well as a textbook in a mineralogy or petrology classroom.'

Bob Jones Source: Rock and Gem

'… this book is hard to beat. The basics are all there to prepare and excite students for more advanced courses in crystallography, petrology, and geotectonics. The book is meant for a one-semester course in Earth materials, but I use it for two semesters - one on mineralogy and one on petrography/introductory petrology.'

Jo Laird Source: American Mineralogist