Crystal Identification with the Polarizing Microscope

✍ Scribed by Richard E. Stoiber, Stearns A. Morse (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer US
• Year: 1994
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 373
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

Some of the simpler measurements of optical mineralogy are so precise and powerful that they give satisfaction to beginning students. Not long after mastering the strike and dip of rock surfaces with the Brunton compass, many geology students are able to determine precisely the identity of quartz, or the anorthite content of plagioclase, or the magne­ sium ratio of pyroxene with the polarizing or petrographic microscope, by means of measuring refractive index to better than one part in a thousand. Very little training and almost no theory are needed to achieve these skills. But there inevitably comes a time when theory is needed, either to get on with the art, or simply to reconstruct from first principles what is going on, when rote memory fails. In this book we hope to provide both the rote methods and the theoretical background for practitioners at all levels of experience. We draw from several careers-ours, our colleagues', and our students' -in teaching the subject at various levels of sophistication. Our book is intended to serve the needs of industrial and forensic scientists as well as petrogra­ phers who deal with rocks. Much of our treatment is based on new research, both in matters of presentation and in the optical determination of minerals and other materials.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages N2-xiv
Crystal Identification and Optical Principles....Pages 1-30
Equipment and Preparation of Materials....Pages 31-48
The Immersion Method....Pages 49-75
Isotropic Crystal Identification....Pages 76-86
Phase Relationships and Interference....Pages 87-101
Anisotropic Crystals....Pages 102-115
Uniaxial Crystal Optics....Pages 116-122
Uniaxial Interference Figures....Pages 123-135
Identification of Uniaxial Crystals....Pages 136-158
Biaxial Crystal Optics....Pages 159-171
Biaxial Interference Figures....Pages 172-198
Identification of Biaxial Crystals....Pages 199-226
Crystallographic Relations of Biaxial Crystals....Pages 227-246
Optic Orientation in Stereo....Pages 247-281
Special Orientation Methods....Pages 282-288
Use of the Dispersion Method....Pages 289-308
Crystal Identification Recipes....Pages 309-324
Back Matter....Pages 325-358

✦ Subjects

Physical Chemistry; Mineral Resources