Guide to Thin Section Microscopy

Michael M. Raith, Peter Raase, and Jurgen Reinhardt (2011) 107 pp. ISBN 978-3-00-033605-5.

Optical thin section analysis is an essential tool for rock and mineral characterization, whether as a stand-alone method or in combination with microbeam and XRD techniques. This liberally illustrated guidebook provides a concise overview on the basics of polarized-light microscopy and its application to thin-section-based mineralogical and petrographic analysis. The larger part of the guide covers morphological and optical properties of minerals. There are further chapters on the principles of microscopic imaging including adjustment procedures for optimal microscope use, and on measuring lengths, angles and crystal plate thickness under the microscope. The book’s emphasis is on practical aspects and methodical approaches in thin section microscopy. It neither intends to cover the in-depth theoretical background of crystal optics, nor does it provide tabulated data for minerals. The guide is designed as an easily accessible learning resource for students, a teaching aid for instructors and a quick-reference manual for any geologist or mineralogist who uses the polarized-light microscope for thin section work.

Download Guide to Thin Section Microscopy (12.3 MB pdf), no cost

Teaching Mineralogy

John B. Brady, David W. Mogk and Dexter Perkins III (2011) i-viii + 406 pages. ISBN 978-0-939950-44-7.

This book is an outgrowth of a workshop on teaching mineralogy held at Smith College in June 1996 and sponsored by a grant from the Division of Undergraduate Education, National Science Foundation (DUE-9554635). Seventy participants, from diverse institutional settings and from all academic ranks, met to explore common interests in improving instruction in mineralogy. At the workshop, participants took part as both instructors and as students. They had the opportunity to explore a variety of new instructional methods and materials and also to observe their colleagues as instructors. All were encouraged to test these activities in their own classrooms, to evaluate their effectiveness, to suggest changes to the authors, and to develop new and complementary exercises. The sourcebook before you is the product of this group effort.

Within this volume you will find numerous exercises that can be applied in the teaching of mineralogy and related courses. There are hands-on, experimental, theoretical, and analytical exercises. All have been written with the hope of optimizing student learning. At the workshop there was little interest in developing a "prescriptive" approach to mineralogy by making recommendations on a specific content that might be universally applied in mineralogy courses and curricula. We recognize that every student population will have different needs, every faculty vi member will have her or his own areas expertise, every department will have its own curricular needs, every institution will have its own resources, and every geographic setting will provide unique educational opportunities. The exercises in this volume provide examples of innovative ways that mineralogy can be taught using a variety of materials and teaching techniques. We encourage you to use these activities in whatever ways will best serve your students. You may freely photocopy the exercises for class use, adopt these materials or adapt them to meet the special needs of your own course, and use these activities as models to help you develop your own new exercises.

Download individual chapters of Teaching Mineralogy, no cost

1965 ACA-MSA Fieldtrip Guidebook

Prepared for the Joint Meeting of the American Crystallographic Association and the Mineralogical Society of America, Gatlinburg. Tennessee June 27 - July 2. 1965.

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Fieldbook cover

An Introduction to the Geology of the Southern Appalachians by George D. Swingle, pg 1 - 8. (5.2 MB)

Field Trip 1: East Tennessee Marble District by Stuart W. Maher, pg 9 - 17 (7.9 MB)

Field Trip 2: Ducktown, Tennessee by Robert A. Laurence, pg 18 - 47, (22.5 MB)

Field Trip 3: The Mascot-Jefferson City Zinc District by Helmuth Wedow , Jr., Robert W. Johnson, Jr., James E. Ricketts and Edward McCormick, pg 38 - 47 (8.9 MB)

Field Trip 4: Corundum Hill, North Carolina_ by Lawrence T. Larson, Frank G. Lesure, and Robert H. Carpenter, pg 48 - 69 (13 MB)

American Mineralogist

Full text articles of the American Mineralogist from 1916 through 1999 (volume 1, number 1 through volume 84, number 11/12) are freely available at http://www.minsocam.org/MSA/ammin/toc/, no cost