This website provides an easy-to-understand introduction to the basics of optical mineralogy. Topics include the polarized light microscope, mineral shape and cleavage, relief, color and pleochroism, interference colors, extinction angles, twinning, opacity, vibration directions and mineral identification. The site features short, clear descriptions accompanied by photographs and drawings. This website ... Full description.

This site from the "On the Cutting Edge" workshop series features a collection of resources for teaching mineralogy at the undergraduate level. These digital teaching materials are designed for faculty to use while designing new courses, enhancing existing courses, or simply looking for new ideas in teaching mineralogy. Students will also find this collection helpful for finding supplemental study ... Full description.

The website features a wealth of interesting and educational sites covering many aspects of mineralogy. Topics listed include mineralogy and crystallography resource pages, mineralogy organizations, journals, databases, images, museum and educational sites, and software. Full description.

This resource is a webpage that accompanies a course on asbestos in building materials. Topics include an introduction to the polarized light microscope, mineral habit, the refractive index, color and pleochroism, polarized light, birefringence, retardation and interference colors, extinction angles, and visual estimation of mineral percentages. The website features instructive photographs of thin ... Full description.

This site, maintained by the University of Bristol, contains a short explanation of X-ray crystallography. Topics covered include a definition of X-ray crystallography, an example of its applications, and the stages of crystal structure determination. A student interested in a concise account of the manner in which this technology is used to identify minerals would benefit from this site. Full description.

This tutorial on crystallography is broken down into equipment set-up, x-ray diffraction basics, symmetry and space groups, structure factors and phase problems, phasing techniques, model building, and real space correlation plots. Diagrams and interactive topics accompany the text, along with an interactive applet on Bragg's Law. Full description.

This site, maintained by the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Wyoming, contains four QuickTime videos of actual crystal growth. To access the videos, scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on any of the downloads that are available. These videos enhance understanding of the processes involved in crystallization. Full description.

This online version of a classic out-of-print sedimentary petrology textbook by Robert L. Folk is hosted by the Walter Geology Library at the University of Texas at Austin. The user can choose between high (PDF) and low resolution downloads of the textbook. Full description.

This website contains an introduction to the principles of optical mineralogy. Topics include the petrographic microscope, light, thin sections, and basic theoretical concepts. The website features text illustrated with ample photographs, drawings, diagrams and movies. The site also contains self-tests using photomicrographs. This resource is a useful tutorial for an introduction or a review of optical ... Full description.

This resource is a table for the identification of minerals with a petrographic microscope. The table lists minerals and their properties, including color in thin section, refractive index, extinction and extinction angle, interference figure, birefringence, twinning and other notes. The table is available in html for web viewing and RTF for printing. Full description.