Petrography

The petrography ( petrography ) (Rock customer, from the Greek Petros "stone" and graphein "to write", " scratch " ) or lithology is the science of rocks, the "Material Types " of the solid crust of the earth. It deals with the chemical and physical nature of the rocks, their properties and their composition of individual minerals, as well as with their grain, and partly the crystal structure. Two major sub-regions are the Sedimentpetrografie and soil physics.

The geological formation of rocks - in the bowels of the earth, in the mountain building and sedimentation - however, the petrology is assigned, which belongs to the narrower the Department of Geology.

The term lithology is used in the field of petrography, which deals with the rock properties of sedimentary rocks. However, it is, moreover, often used for sediment structure, and stratification / Bankung and other characteristics of the respective Gesteinsfazies.

Important inquiry processes are the chemical macro -and micro- analysis and mineralogical examination of the rocks, as well as the determination of the physical rock parameters (strength and elasticity, hardness, mountain wet and dry density, stratification, etc.). Of great benefit are the separation methods by which one or more types of minerals a composite rock are isolated. It is this separation in essence by mechanical or chemical means.

In the investigation and interpretation of the storage conditions of metamorphism and of the causes of rearrangements it overlaps with the General and Regional Geology.