Course textbook and primary resources
Perkins online mineralogy open-source textbook
Optional useful general mineralogy resources
- Dyar and Gunter textbook previously used for the course, including links to each animation/video
- Mineral database app: microsoft, iOS, Mac
- Johnson et al. optical mineralogy / petrology interactive e-book and tutorial
- Raith et al. open-access Guide to Thin Section Microscopy
- Optional book on reserve in the library: DHZ Introduction to the Rock-Forming-Minerals – summaries of mineral diagnostic properties, excellent summary of chemical variations, summaries of geological occurrences, etc.
- Nesse optical mineralogy book
- Nesse mineralogy textbook (formerly used as main textbook for the course)
Online mineralogy databases
- Mindat.org – amazing resource for mineral stats, localities, photos, wow!
- Mineralogical Society of America Crystal Structure Database
This is my go-to resource for downloading free crystal structures (.amc/.cif) and powder X-ray diffraction data (list of d-spacings and intensities, etc.) - Mincryst crystallographic database
- RRUFF database designed for Raman spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction. The CrystalSleuth program is useful for matching Raman spectra to minerals.
- Webmineral is another general mineral info website similar to Mindat. Includes useful X-ray search function. Also a page that will allow you to search minerals by physical and optical properties.
- Hand sample mineral identification key from the Mineralogical Society of America.
‘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
- Great optical mineralogy introduction by GeoGirl part 1 ,part 2 (optical indicatrix, unixial vs biaxial, interference figures);
- Will Snellius optical mineralogy overview video playlist
- Matt Kohn’s awesome YouTube channel with tutorial videos for various minerals in thin section, etc. I the way he shows multiple examples and provides the voice-overs for what to look for is really helpful.
- Earth Optics petrography skills video tutorials
- GeoHub Liverpool Intro to looking at rocks in thin section
Guides and notes for identifying minerals once you collect data
- Name that mineral useful interactive tool to help identify unkonwn minerals in thin section
- ATHENA OpticMin searchable database
- Identification Tables for Common Minerals in Thin Section — John Faithful, Hunterian Museum, University of Glasgow; comprehensive and easy to use tables of optical properties of the rock-forming minerals.
Photo atlases of minerals in thin section:
- microckscopic.ro. ; igneous minerals (Hollacher); metamorphic minerals(Oxford); NOVA mineralogy; Perkins optical mineralogy website with mineral details; Siddell;
- MAGIC GigaPan image collection of rock and mineral thin sections and video channel.; Mid-Atlantic Geo-Image Collection (M.A.G.I.C.)
- Oxford image collection of rocks in thin section (not interactive)
- Alex Strekeisen great examples of minerals in thin section and also their context in Earth. Also a great channel to follow on social media with awesome frequent images of gorgeous rocks and minerals in thin section.
Video atlas of minerals in thin section:
- Matt Kohn (highly recommended),
- rockptx, MAGIC. GigaPans, Thin section videos from Mary Leech
- Nick Mezaros videos with no voice over; sign of elongation. , igneous rocks in thin section., interference figures of common minerals
Interactive
- virtual microscope of rocks in thin section, with photos of hand samples also
- refraction ‘bending light‘ simulation
- Virtual interference figures allows you to display calculated interference figures based on properties you enter
- Photo atlas of rocks in thin section, with links to minerals:
- alexstrekeisen.it/ many thin section photos of rocks and minerals, best for petrology. Good pages for individual minerals – if you click on a rock type then the constituent minerals appear on the side you can click on.
- MAGIC GigaPan image collection of rock and mineral thin sections and video channel; Mid-Atlantic Geo-Image Collection (M.A.G.I.C.)
- Oxford image collection of rocks in thin section (not interactive)
- General petrography video tutorials
- Earth Optics petrography skills video tutorials
- GeoHub Liverpool Intro to looking at rocks in thin section
- Matt Kohn playlists with optics examples
- Matt Kohn Pleochroism and color tutorial
How thin sections are made: Hirsch, Spectrum Petrographic
Maintenance and care of petrographic microscopes: how to clean optics
Hand sample identification
- A practical online study guide to mineral ID (hand samples)
- Mineralogical Society of America hosted hand sample ID key (direct link), with Mindat
- YouTube channel for a different mineralogy course with helpful playlists on mineral ID
- Nova mineralogy site with mineral data, hand sample high resolution photos, and videos of thin sections
Organizations with useful mineralogical resources
- International Mineralogical Association (includes the people that decide on mineral names and classification)
- Mineralogical Society of America
- Clay Minerals Society
- Oklahoma Gem and Mineral Society
YouTube channel for discussions with mineralogists
- MineralTalks Live. discussions with mineral collectors
Crystallography and symmetry
- EscherSketch! point group drawing
- Smorf 3D drawing of crystal forms
- Miller index interactive visualizer
- Sketchfab collection that includes great crystal forms
- Symmetry of crystals detailed introduction with useful reference tables and figures
- WVU sketchfab crystallography and crystal structure collection
- Visible Geology online Stereonet app
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
- U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources program has a range of amazing data on minerals that are used in society for a whole range of purposes
- Historical Statistics for Mineral Commodities in the United States, published by the USGS, gives supply/demand and some end-use statistics for mineral commodities, as both PDF and Excel files.
- Mineral Commodity Summaries, published by the USGS, gives information about uses, places of production, prices, for different mineral commodities.
- Mineral Resource of the Month, published in EARTH magazine (published by AGI), gives brief summaries of different mineral commodities, written for the general public with a focus on “why should we care?”
- How rocks power your iphone story of how minerals are used to obtain critical elements needed fo all types of devices including phones.
- The story of silver in the United States interesting and helpful article about gold’s sibling – silver, and the fascinating history of silver mining in the US (thank you Penny and Matthew Wood for finding this!)
- hoping to add more in this category soon…a very interesting and important topic.
Mineral stories
- “All Minerals Considered” series from Nature Geoscience
Gems and precious stones
- how diamond is formed and geology career info (thanks, Riley!)
- Gemological Institute of America
many others in the future!
