Mineralogy links

Course textbook and primary resources

Perkins online mineralogy open-source textbook

Optional useful general mineralogy resources

Online mineralogy databases

‘Khan academy’ for mineralogy

check out this YouTube channel

Petrography | optical microscopy

Raith et al. open-access Guide to Thin Section Microscopy
Interactive book chapter to learn thin section petrography (by Elizabeth Johnson and Juhong Christie Liu)

Overview video presentations for optical mineralogy

Guides and notes for identifying minerals once you collect data 

Photo atlases of minerals in thin section:

Video atlas of minerals in thin section: 

Interactive

How thin sections are made: Hirsch, Spectrum Petrographic

Maintenance and care of petrographic microscopes: how to clean optics

Hand sample identification

Organizations with useful mineralogical resources

YouTube channel for discussions with mineralogists

Crystallography and symmetry

Software for visualizing crystal structures

  • CrystalMaker is the professional program (unfortunately paid) I use for research and teaching with crystal structures. They used to have a free CrystalViewer, but I think it’s discontinued. This is also the program the authors used to generate the structures and illustrations from our textbook.
  • Vesta open-source program that opens .amc files from the Mineralogical Society of America Crystal Structure Database or .cif files. Works on any operating system platform.
  • XtalDraw and CrystalSleuth are older but still good programs for displaying crystal structures and analyzing Raman data, for Windows systems.

Recommended books:

  • Rocks and Minerals in Thin Section (Second edition) by W.S. MacKenzie, A.E. Adams & K.H.Brodie (2017). A concise, illustrated introduction to observation, description and identification of geological samples in thin section. Aimed at undergraduate level.
  • etc. will add

YouTube channel for discussions with mineral collectors

Mineral resources

Mineral stories

Gems and precious stones

many others in the future!