Recent advances in analytical techniques and microspectroscopic methods, and their combination with phase equilibria and in-situ diffraction studies, have opened new exciting prospects for modern mineralogy. In particular, the genesis of minerals can now be based on more rigorous physical-chemical grounds, relying on long-range or defect structural characterization, and on a sound state-of-the-art theoretical modeling. The knowledge of fine details of composition, bonding, atomic and electronic structure helps unravel individual fingerprints of defect natural crystals grown under different PT- and chemical conditions. This session will be focused on the following key topics:

challenge of combining spectroscopic, diffraction and thermodynamic data in reconstructing the history of mineral formation and alteration;

complex spectroscopic and analytical studies of heterovalent substitutions, of their influence on the local environments, and of the accompanying mechanisms of achieving a charge balance;

computational modeling of thermodynamic crystal properties, of crystal defects and of their spectroscopic response.