One of the ultimate goals of mineralogy is not only to identify minerals, but also to determine the fields of pressure and temperature in which they were formed. A mean is to reproduce them at the laboratory, and this was tried since 19th century, in particular in Paris. It is indeed in the laboratories of the Paris School of Mines that Pierre Berthier, J. Ebelmen and A. Daubrée, before he became professor at the Stasbourg University, carried out the mineral first synthesis. Thus they opened the way of many researches, who tried initially to reproduce the most invaluable minerals, i.e. those which constitute "prcious stones ":

Whereas Moissan obtained very results discussed on the synthesis of diamond, P. Hautefeuille carried out many syntheses by using mineralising agents and gas or vapour as catalysts. He reproduced rutile corundum and sphene. By the dry way method, he succeeded in crystallising tridymite, quartz, nephelite, leucite, phenacite, zircon and emerald, by wet process he produced the three polymorphic varieties of titanium oxydes. Between 1871 and 1892, E Fremy, Feil and Verneuil synthesised ruby.

All this work was only the first trials of a research domain which will take an extraordinary development within the second half of XXth century . Syntheses in the laboratories, which are done under known conditions of temperature and pressure, render possible to check the theoretical laws about the equilibrium between mineral phases, an activity in which eminent scientists such as Bakhuis Roozeboom, P. Schreinemakers or W Gibbs illustrated.

During all the 19th century, there was relatively little true interpretation, apart from the remarkable work of Van' T Hoff, on the crystallisation of salts by evaporation of sea water or on the gypsum-anhydrite transition. With regard to more complex problems, in particular relating to the crystallisation of the principal types of igneous rocks (granite and basalt), the first work in that domain was completed by the English J Hall (1761-1832). But it was impossible to know with an unspecified precision the melting points of principal minerals before the invention of the platinum thermocouple, which was only introduced in 1886. Since this date, the situation evolved quickly. Magmatic theories defined per H. Rosenbusch are well established, the techniques used in laboratories (furnaces, autoclaves, apparatus measuring of temperature and pressure) makes possible to carry out reliable experiments.

Experimental mineralogy will then take a great rise under the influence of the American scientist N.L. Bowen, who joined in 1910 the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution in Washington (created in 1906). In a few years, N.L. Bowen elucidated the crystallisation mechanisms of the basaltic magmas and, studying increasingly complex systems, he will find the principle of split crystallisation, one of the bases of modern petrography.

Experimental mineralogy and petrology are today one of the most significant branches of all the Earth Sciences. In 1954, the Weil, Hocart and Monier’s French team successed in the synthesis of opaque minerals: copper arsenides, proustite and stibnite. Few years later, J Prouvost transformed metal sulphides under conditions simulating those occurring naturally during hydrothermal replacements. This work was continued by Maurel, which analyzed between 100°C and 200°C the hydrothermal interchanges between metal sulphide minerals and aqueous salt solutions.

Circa 1965’ many works were devoted to fluid-solids interactions in the alkaline feldspars system. With low temperature, this problem relates to the early genesis of minerals, mainly with clay minerals, in sedimentary rocks and in surface formations. Kaolinite and muscovite were synthesised in 1965 in Paris by Lagache, then Wey and his team produced zeolites in 1970.

Petrography of the magmatic and metamorphic bodies also was the field for many experimental works. F Fouque and A. Michel-Michel-Levy had shown the way, by synthesising volcanic rocks minerals in dry conditions. J. Wyart, intervening in the great controversy which, during years, opposed " solidists " and " magmatists " about the difficult problem of the origin of granite, demonstrated the importance of water during the crystallisation of granitic magmas. Since 1940, H. Saucier studied in laboratory, viscosity of glasses having the same chemical composition that granite. This kind of experimental studies which necessitated an important experimental and analytical equipment was only developed in very few laboratories: the first of all was of course theGeophysical Laboratory in Washington, which during some decades provided an example for all the others, but important also was H. Winkler’s team in Göttingen, which formed most of the researchers later working in that domain in most of the German and Austrian universities. Also to be considerd are the Research Centre on Mineral Synthesis belonging to the French National Scientific Research Council (CNRS) in Orleans, the Institute of Research of Chernogolovka, near Moscow (Russia), etc. The numerous experimentation performed in those laboratories are at the origin of the richness and precision of today’s thermodynamic data bases so essential to calculate the inter-mineral reactions and specially, the determinations of the pressure-temperatures conditions prevailing in deep rocks (in particular, Pressure - Temperature evolution in metamorphic series).

Current research continues in multiple directions:

Thanks to the " diamond anvil ", one can reproduce today conditions prevailing in any point of the Eart’s globe, down to the deeper levels like the lower mantle and even inside the core.