Thin Sections

To geologists, thin sections are the greatest thing since sliced bread.

From the Open University in England, this nifty app lets you play with thin sections online.

Geologist Greg McHone refurbishes these instruments and presents a wealth of authoritative detail.

Gigapans are huge images you can zoom deep into. This growing gallery presents wonderful thin sections to fill your biggest screen.

A first-rate exhibit of thin sections at the New York State Museum, full of color and information.

An excellent introduction to mineral optics and thin-section studies, from the University of Bristol in England.

Thirty-eight common rock-forming minerals shown in thin section, at Humboldt State University, California.

The Olympus Microscopy Resource Center hosts this well-annotated set of 116 slides, mostly of rocks. Find them down the page, past the glitzy chemical crystals.

England's Southampton Oceanography Centre hosts a 17-page set of images that toggle between crossed and uncrossed nicols.

This site, one of the first on the Web, has about 70 minerals with pictures.

A rich compendium of thin-section images, crystallographic information, and more for 27 of the most common minerals. A resource for students at Brock University.

Steven Dutch of the University of Wisconsin maintains this helpful site with diagrams, photos and tables for many minerals. He says "the odds are at least 99 percent that what you're looking for is on this chart."

Akira Ishiwatari of Kanazawa University has created this online version of his handy plastic chart, arranging minerals by axial angle and interference color. A must for professionals.

The large Links for Mineralogists site has a page with some more specialized sites.