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.