This resource is an outline of a course on optical mineralogy. Topics include Properties of Light, Refractometry, Isotropic Materials, Anisotropic Minerals, Optical Properties, Uniaxial Minerals, and Biaxial Minerals. This website features tables with the optical properties of many minerals, along with thin section photographs and lecture notes. The website would be useful for students of mineralogy ... Full description.

This resource is a 43 page pdf document on the principals of optical mineralogy. Topics include light, the polarizing light microscope, the refractive index, optical classes and indicatrix theory, the relationship of optical properties to crystal chemistry, and advanced methods in optical mineralogy. The website features both text and figures. 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.

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 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 is a chapter on spectroscopy from The Manual of Remote Sensing, Volume 3, Remote Sensing for the Earth Sciences. Topics in the chapter include an overview of spectroscopy, the reflection and absorption process, causes of absorption, spectra of miscellaneous minerals and materials, the sensitivity of absorption bands to crystal structure and chemistry and the scattering process. The chapter also ... 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 is a lecture about crystal structure from Dr. Stephen Nelson at Tulane University. Topics include axial ratios, intercepts of crystal faces (Weiss Parameters), determination of the Miller Index of a crystal, the modified notation of hexagonal systems, which is referred to as Miller-Bravais Indices, and using the Miller Index notation to designate crystal forms. Tables and illustrations accompany ... Full description.

This site is a lecture by Dr. Stephen Nelson from Tulane University that explores the use of the Miller Index notation to designate crystal forms. Topics include crystal forms, general and special forms, and open and closed forms. Also discussed is the relationship between form and crystal faces, along with zones and zone symbols, the vectorial properties of crystals, and crystal habit. Tables and ... Full description.