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EASC 217:Optical Mineralogy

Credits: 
2

This course is designed to prepare students for the study of rocks in thin section (i.e. petrography). Topics to be covered include the elementary principles of crystal optics, familiarization with the microscope, the immersion method, isotropic, uniaxial, and biaxial optics, and the detailed study of rock-forming minerals in thin section. By the end of the course students should be able to readily identify the major rock-forming minerals in thin section. In addition students will learn how to find the necessary information to identify an unknown and perhaps never studied mineral. In order to accomplish the first two objectives, students will learn about the underlying concepts related to mineral behaviour in transmitted/polarized light and the use of the petrographic microscope.