Rock-forming Minerals in Thin Section Book

This book consists of three main parts. Part A is a short practical guide into crystal optics, because the principal use of the polarizing microscope and the recognition of all distinguishing optical features like morphology, colour in thin section, pleochroism, cleavage, twinning, refraction index, birefringence, extinction angle, optical character, optical orientation, dispersion etc. are the requirements for the identification of the common rock-forming minerals in thin section. Part B gives a detailed description of the characteristic optical features, special features, and the paragenesis of the most common rock-forming minerals. This chapter is divided into opaque minerals, isotropic minerals and amorph substances, uniaxial minerals with a positive character, uniaxial minerals with a negative character, and optical biaxial minerals. Most of the described minerals are illustrated by typical microphotographs or black-and-white drawings. Part C contains identification tables for the rock-forming minerals, diagrams for the international classification of the magmatic rocks, black-and-white drawings of typical textures of minerals and petrofabrics of rocks. Read More