OPTICAL MINERALOGY BASICS

Note: In this course you will not be directly responsible for optical theory, but will learn minerals based on visual observations and pattern recognition. To help you place some of the optical mineralogy in context, these pages will briefly explain some key concepts crucial to developing your mineral identification skills.

The Student Petrographic Microscope (Uses Frames: Requires Netscape 2.0 or better)
Light Behaviour
Importance of Refractive Index
Relief
- Becke Lines
- Oblique Illumination
Use of interference color chart Warning - very large file!! (68 kb)
How to Obtain an Interference Figure
Uniaxial Interference Figures
Determining plagioclase compositions using the Michel-Levy method

[Lab 1 | Lab 2 | Petrology Tools and Methods ]

since August 6, 1997.
Last Modified:

EOSC 221
Introduction to Petrology
University of British Columbia