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Inclusion identification and geology

A fragment of foreign material enclosed within a mineral crystal, rock, or gemstone during its formation. Inclusions may be solid mineral grains, xenocrysts , liquid fluid inclusions , or gaseous, and they provide valuable information about the conditions of formation, including temperature, pressure, and fluid composition. In gemology, inclusions are important for identification and quality assessment. Field: mineralogy. Example: Fluid inclusions in quartz from hydrothermal veins can be heated on a microscope stage to determine the temperature at which the fluid was originally trapped, providing direct evidence of the ore-forming temperature.. Related terms: Xenolith, Xenocryst, Fluid inclusion, Paragenesis.

Sources, scope & corrections

These authoritative resources support category-level nomenclature, terminology, identification methods, and safety. When a specimen-specific safety warning appears, the public-health source listed here directly supports that precaution. They are not line-by-line citations for every other property on this entry, and natural specimens vary.

Editorial owner
GeoMiner
Last updated
2026-03-30T15:19:42.027557+00:00
Review status
Published; not independently peer-reviewed
  • USGS Thesaurus — U.S. Geological Survey. Controlled earth-science terminology used to describe USGS information resources.
  • Glossary of Geologic Terms — U.S. National Park Service. Geologic definitions prepared by the NPS Geologic Resources Inventory.

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Common questions

What does Inclusion mean in geology?
A fragment of foreign material enclosed within a mineral crystal, rock, or gemstone during its formation. Inclusions may be solid mineral grains, xenocrysts , liquid fluid inclusions , or gaseous, and they provide valuable information about the conditions of formation, including temperature, pressure, and fluid composition. In gemology, inclusions are important for identification and quality assessment.
What is an example of Inclusion?
Fluid inclusions in quartz from hydrothermal veins can be heated on a microscope stage to determine the temperature at which the fluid was originally trapped, providing direct evidence of the ore-forming temperature.
Which earth-science field uses the term Inclusion?
Inclusion is used in mineralogy.
Which terms are related to Inclusion?
Related terms in this reference are Xenolith, Xenocryst, Fluid inclusion, Paragenesis.

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