MINERALOGY COURSES

UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL MINERALOGY COURSE

Excellent course notes and mineralogy illustrations. We will be using this as part of our reading and lectures during the semester.

MINERALOGY STUDY GAME, COLGATE UNIVERSITY.

Nice interactive quiz game that covers aspects of crystallography, optical mineral properties, and physical properties of minerals.

GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONES, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

Great Course on Gemology. If you want to know anything about gems, this is a great place to go learn. Systematic online course with tests. This also has a lot of information that will help you in studying mineralogy.

COLOR OF MINERALS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

Simple lecture on color of minerals using gems as examples. Good introduction to basic theory.

OPTICAL MINERALOGY COURSES

BROCK UNIVERSITY OPTICAL COURSE

Excellent comprehensive course on optical mineralogy. This will also be a site that you will have assigned readings from during the semester.

MINERALS UNDER THE MICROSCOPE, UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL

Quick explanation of basic optics and optical mineral identification.

CORNELL COLLEGE IOWA OPTICAL MINERALOGY

Nice illustrations for Optical in a Power Point style presentation, without explanations.

MINERAL IDENTIFICATION RESOURCES

MINERALOGY DATABASE

Excellent comprehensive site with just about everything you want to know about most common minerals. Chemical data, crystallography, xray crystallography, associations, and physical properties.

ATHENA MINERALOGY GALLERY

Hand specimen minerals listed by name with excellent descriptions, origins, uses and chemical formulas (no crystal data).

ATHENA MINERALOGY GALLERY

Hand specimen minerals listed by class (oxides, silicates, etc.) with excellent descriptions, origins, uses and chemical formulas (no crystal data).

MINERAL EXHIBITS

AMETHYST GALLARIES, COMMERCIAL SITE

Nice Specimen Pictures and excellent searchable database.

THE MINERAL AND GEMSTONE KINGDOM

Very nice site with lots of minerals and great searchable database.

GEMS AND PRECIOUS STONE IMAGES, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN

Comprehensive image gallery from the University of Wisconsin Gemology Course. Multiple examples of many minerals.

SMITHSONIAN GEM AND MINERAL GALLERY

Some nice pictures from the Smithsonian Museum reproduced here. Brief nontechnical descriptions, but neat pictures of a lot of rare crystals.

OPTICAL MINERALOGY, PHOTOMICROGRAPHS OF MINERALS AND ROCKS

THIN SECTION MINERALS, BROCK UNIVERSITY

Excellent gallery of thin section minerals with detailed descriptions of properties and diagrams of crystal form. This is an excellent resource to assist you with learning mineral identification.

THIN SECTIONS OF MINERALS, TEXTURES, IGNEOUS, AND METAMORPHIC ROCKS

This is a great gallery of over 200 photomicrographs covering a wide variety of minerals, rocks and rock textures. Be sure to visit it.

THIN SECTION PHOTOMICROGRAPHS OF MINERALS, UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA

The best photomicrograph gallery containing hundreds of mineral, texture, and rock photomicrographs. Gives both plane light and polarized light views along with a listing of important optical characterisitics.

CHEMISTRY SITES

WEB ELEMENTS--PERIODIC TABLE

This is a great site with an interactive periodic table that contains virtually all the information about every element. Good site for electron configurations and crystal structure of native elemental compounds too!

CRYSTALLOGRAPHY SITES

MIKE AND DARCY HOWARDS CRYSTALLOGRAPHY COURSE ON THE WEB

Excellent and very detailed descriptions on crystallography, crystal forms, the six crystal systems, and all of the crystal classes.

CRYSTAL CHEMISTRY AND STRUCTURE SITES

UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS XTAL-DRAW SITE, UNIT CELL LECTURE

Excellent description with great drawings of some silicate unit cells. There are also great pages showing rotational and translational symmetry and of the structure of the major silicate groups in relation to their unit cells.

X-RAY DIFFRACTION SITES

MINERALS BY X-RAY at the MINERAL DATABASE SITE

List of minerals by their 3 most prominent d-spacings. Essentially an online Search Manual for Minerals

UNIVERSITY OF IOWA OPTICAL COURSE

OK site. Illustrations for a lecture showing optical properties of minerals, no descriptions.

MINERALOGICAL SOCIETIES

MINERALOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Excellent site with information, links, and resources for mineralogy.