Nickel–Strunz classification

Nickel–Strunz classification is a scheme for categorizing minerals based upon their chemical composition, introduced by German mineralogist Karl Hugo Strunz (24 February 1910 – 19 April 2006) in his Mineralogische Tabellen (1941).

As curator of the Mineralogical Museum of Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität (now known as the Humboldt University of Berlin), Strunz had been tasked with sorting the museum's geological collection according to crystal-chemical properties.

[1] His book Mineralogical Tables, has been through a number of modifications; the most recent edition, published in 2001, is the ninth (Mineralogical Tables by Hugo Strunz and Ernest H. Nickel (31 August 1925 – 18 July 2009)).

[4] The Nickel–Strunz code scheme is NN.XY.##x, where: The current scheme divides minerals into ten classes, which are further divided into divisions, families and groups according to chemical composition and crystal structure.

[5] IMA/CNMNC proposes a new hierarchical scheme (Mills et al. 2009), using the Nickel–Strunz classes (10 ed) this gives: