Guide to Thin Section Microscopy

Michael M. Raith, Peter Raase, and Jurgen Reinhardt (2012, second edition) 127 pp. ISBN 978-3-00-037671-9 (English); 978-3-00-036420-4 (German); 978-3-00-040623-2 (Spanish).

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.

Several of the chapters have reorganized and revised in the second edition, notably chapters 3.2, 3.4, 4.2.3. Chapter 3.2 now includes deformation-related features at the grain or thin section scale. The text and figures of chapter 3.4 have been revised and extended. Chapter 4.2.3 has undergone a major revision that should help the novice to better understand the physical background to some basic optical phenomena such as retardation and interference colours. The upgrade involves new calculated interference colour charts, including a new, previously unpublished Δn-d chart.

The second edition guide is available at no cost in English, German, and Spanish. The reduced-resolution versions give acceptable printouts in A4 format, whereas the print-quality versions give optimal reproduction of the color figures.

Guide to Thin Section Microscopy (English, ISBN 978-3-00-037671-9)

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Leitfaden zur Dünnschliffmikroskopie (German, ISBN 978-3-00-036420-4)

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Guía de Microscopía para la microscopía de minerales en lámina delgada (Spanish, translated by Pedro Oyhantçabal, ISBN 978-3-00-040623-2)

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Thin Section Microscopy (1st edition, ISBN 978-3-00-033605-5) (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.

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Ore microscopy and ore petrography - 2nd ed.

James R. Craig, David J. Vaughan (1994) i-xiv + 434 pages. ISBN 0-471-55175-9.

The study of opaque minerals or synthetic solids in polished section using the polarizing reflected-light microscope is the most important technique for the identification and characterization ofthe opaque phases in a sample and the textural relationships between them. Since most metalliferous ores are comprised of opaque minerals, this study has been traditionally known as ore microscopy and has found its greatest applications in the study of mineral deposits. It may be applied, however, as a general technique in the study of igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic rocks containing opaque minerals and even in the study of metallurgical products or other synthetic materials. The objective of this text is to present an up-to-date introduction to ore microscopy for the student or professional scientist who is unfamiliar with the technique - an introduction that would accompany a course at the senior undergraduate or graduate level or that would provide the professional with a first step in familiarization. Emphasis is placed on the basic skills required for the study of opaque minerals in polished section, and information in the text and appendices on the more common ore minerals and assemblages provides examples.

The first two chapters cover the design and operation of the ore microscope and the preparation of polished (and polished thin) sections. The third chapter dealing with qualitative mineral properties used in identification is followed by a chapter on reflected-light optics. The quantitative measurement of reflectance, color, and microhardness are treated in Chapters 5 and 6 along with overall schemes for employing these measurements in identification. Chapters 7 and 8 deal with ore mineral textures and paragenesis, and include a brief discussion of the study offluid inclusions. Chapters 9 and 10 are concise discussions of many of the major ore mineral associations observed under the microscope. Chapter 11 deals with the applications of ore microscopy in mineral technology. The appendices contain the data necessary to identify approximately 100 of the more common ore minerals-those likely to be encountered by the student in an introductory course andthose frequently encountered by the professional scientist.

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Carbon in Earth

Robert M. Hazen, Adrian P. Jones, and John A. Baross, Editors (2013) i-xv + 698 pages. ISBN 978-0-939950-90-4.

Carbon in Earth is an outgrowth of the Deep Carbon Observatory (DCO), a 10-year international research effort dedicated to achieving transformational understanding of the chemical and biological roles of carbon in Earth (http://dco.ciw.edu). Hundreds of researchers from 6 continents, including all 51 coauthors of this volume, are now engaged in the DCO effort. This volume serves as a benchmark for our present understanding of Earth's carbon - both what we know and what we have yet to learn. Ultimately, the goal is to produce a second, companion volume to mark the progress of this decadal initiative.

This volume addresses a range of questions that were articulated in May 2008 at the First Deep Carbon Cycle Workshop in Washington, DC. At that meeting 110 scientists from a dozen countries set forth the state of knowledge about Earth's carbon. They also debated the key opportunities and top objectives facing the community. Subsequent deep carbon meetings in Bejing, China (2010), Novosibirsk, Russia (2011), and Washington, DC (2012), as well as more than a dozen smaller workshops, expanded and refined the DCO's decadal goals. The 20 chapters that follow elaborate on those opportunities and objectives.

A striking characteristic of Carbon in Earth is the multidisciplinary scientific approach necessary to encompass this topic. The following chapters address such diverse aspects as the fundamental physics and chemistry of carbon at extreme conditions, the possible character of deep-Earth carbon-bearing minerals, the geodynamics of Earth's large-scale fluid fluxes, tectonic implications of diamond inclusions, geosynthesis of organic molecules and the origins of life, the changing carbon cycle through deep time, and the vast subsurface microbial biosphere (including the hidden deep viriosphere). Accordingly, the collective authorship of Carbon in Earth represents laboratory, field, and theoretical researchers from the full range of physical and biological sciences.

A hallmark of the DCO is the desire to implement advanced strategies in communications, data management, engagement, and visualization. Accordingly, this volume incorporates some novel aspects. Thanks to sponsorship by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which continues to provide significant support for the DCO, this is the first of the RiMG series to be published as an Open Access volume.

The links to the free downloads of the entire book, or individual parts, chapters, supplements, or videos are included with the Table of Contents of the book.

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

Washington A. Roebling donation letter, February 15, 1926

W. A. Roebling Donation letter (532 KB jpg), no cost

W. A. Roebling Donation letter (readable) transcript (1 MB pdf), no cost