A petrographer's library - 25 selected references

A suite of titles chosen to aid in the description and interpretation of minerals and rocks of all kinds. Some of these titles are also helpful in the description of industrial products, archaeological artefacts and meteorites, although a number of additional titles would be required to cover properly these specialized applications of microscopy.

Some of these books are available in more-recent editions. Selected more for their descriptive value than for deep discussions of processes, these works nevertheless lay the foundation for detailed interpretations, which require a firm basis of observation.

Hand-specimen / binocular-microscope mineralogy

BERRY,LG and MASON,B (1959) Mineralogy: Concepts, Descriptions, Determinations. W.H. Freeman and Company, 630pp.

DANA,ES (1932) A Textbook of Mineralogy. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, 4th edition, revised by Ford,WE, 851pp.

MANGE,MA and MAURER,HFW (1992) Heavy Minerals in Colour. Chapman and Hall, London, 147pp.

POUGH,FH (1970) A Field Guide to Rocks and Minerals. Constable, London, 2nd edition, 349pp., 1960, republished in UK.

Mineral nomenclature: reference works

CLARK,AM (1993) Hey's Mineral Index. Natural History Museum / Chapman and Hall, London, 852pp.

FLEISCHER,M and MANDARINO,JA (1991) Glossary of Mineral Species. Mineralogical Record Inc., Tucson, sixth edition, 256pp.

NICKEL,EH and NICHOLS,MC (1991) Mineral Reference Manual. Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, 250pp.

Petrography in transmitted light

DEER,WA, HOWIE,RA and ZUSSMAN,J (1966) An Introduction to the Rock Forming Minerals. Longmans, 528pp.

FLEISCHER,M, WILCOX,RE and MATZKO,JJ (1984) Microscopic Determination of the Nonopaque Minerals. USGS Bull. 1627, 453pp.

KERR,PF (1959) Optical Mineralogy. McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York, 3rd edition, 442pp.

MacKENZIE,WS and GUILFORD,C (1980) Atlas of Rock-Forming Minerals in Thin Section. Longman, 98pp.

MacKENZIE,WS, DONALDSON,CH and GUILFORD,C (1982) Atlas of Igneous Rocks and their Textures. Longman, 148pp.

THOMPSON,AJB and THOMPSON,JFH (editors) (1996) Atlas of Alteration: a Field and Petrographic Guide to Hydrothermal Alteration Minerals. GAC Mineral Deposits Division, 119pp.

Petrography in reflected light

CRAIG,JR and VAUGHAN,DJ (1981) Ore Microscopy and Ore Petrography. Wiley-Interscience, 406pp.

PICOT,P and JOHAN,Z (1977) Atlas des Mineraux Metalliques. BRGM Mem. 90-1977, 407pp. (in Fr.).

RAMDOHR,P (1980) The Ore Minerals and Their Intergrowths. Pergamon Press, 2nd edition in 2 vols., 1205pp.

SPRY,PG and GEDLINSKE,BL (1987) Tables for the Determination of Common Opaque Minerals. Economic Geology Publ.Co., 52pp.

UYTENBOGAARDT,W and BURKE,EAJ (1971) Tables for Microscopic Identification of Ore Minerals. Elsevier, 2nd revised edition, 430pp.

Petrology: minerals and other components of rocks and ores

ADAMS,AE, MacKENZIE,WS and GUILFORD,C (1984) Atlas of Sedimentary Rocks under the Microscope. Longman, 104pp.

COX,KG, BELL,JD and PANKHURST,RJ (1979) The Interpretation of Igneous Rocks. George Allen and Unwin, 450pp.

LE MAITRE,RW (editor) (1989) A Classification of Igneous Rocks and Glossary of Terms: Recommendations of the International Union of Geological Sciences Subcommission on the Systematics of Igneous Rocks. Blackwell Scientific Publications Ltd, Oxford, 193pp.

MITCHELL,RH (1997) Kimberlites, Orangeites, Lamproites, Melilitites and Minettes: a Petrographic Atlas. Almaz Press, Inc., Thunder Bay, Ontario, 243pp.

SCHOLLE,PA (1978) A Color Illustrated Guide to Carbonate Rock Constituents, Textures, Cements, and Porosities. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK, Memoir 27, 241pp.

SCHOLLE,PA (1979) A Color Illustrated Guide to Constituents, Textures, Cements, and Porosities of Sandstones and Associated Rocks. American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Tulsa, OK, Memoir 28, 201pp.

YARDLEY,BWD, MacKENZIE,WS and GUILFORD,C (1990) Atlas of Metamorphic Rocks and their Textures. Longman Group UK Ltd, 120pp.


Graham Wilson, posted 23 February 2003

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