Course textbook and primary resources

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.
• Handbook of Mineralogy

‘Khan academy’ for mineralogy

Petrography | optical microscopy

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; Perkinsoptical 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

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.

• 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

• Blue Cap productions

Raman spectroscopy

• Practical analysis of minerals by Raman spectroscopy, Bartholomew and Post, 2024, made available through the Mineralogical Society of America.

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