If the study of "minerals" is covered by inorganic chemistry

Question

I am wondering what field studies "minerals", such as the minerals in Wikipedia's list. I keep thinking that perhaps it would be covered in inorganic chemistry (list of inorganic compounds wiki), but for example the mineral "Abelsonite" is not in the inorganic list, though it does seem to have a chemical formula, C₃₁H₃₂N₄Ni. I am not sure where the boundary is between "minerals" and "inorganic molecules".

I would like to know so that in terms of data, if pubmed lists the data for inorganic compounds, then perhaps it also includes the data on minerals. But if the two fields are separate (mineralogy and inorganic chemistry), then perhaps the data for each is treated separately as well.

Answer 1

The study of minerals is the field "mineralogy" In some ways it would be a subset of inorganic chemistry, restricted to crystaline materials of natural origin. However, mineralogy includes the physical as well as chemical properties, especially crystallography, X-Ray diffraction and optical properties. It also includes aspects of how the minerals were formed in nature. Minerals also may be named by their chemical formula, but some chemicals have different crystal forms so two minerals can have the same formula. For example the minerals calcite and aragonite are forms of calcium carbonate, $\ce{CaCO_3}$. So you may need to broaden your search in pubmed and they may not include data for all minerals.