Here's a list of our sources and some great resources for taking things further.
- MicroscopyU: a very comprehensive website regarding microscopy theory and techniques.
- Alessandro Da Mommio's website: a copious amount of definitions in plain, non-technical language and a lot of pictures. We've also used a lot of his photos, with his blessings.
- Mindat and Webmineral: straightforward technical facts about minerals.
- Prof. Stephen Nelson's course for Tulane University: Offers some really in depth and detailed info on all things mineralogy and advanced microscopy techniques.
- A Quickstart Guide: Raith, Raase and Reinhardt’s easy to follow guide on thin section microscopy.
- Edafologia: a website dedicated mainly to soils, but it has an easy to understand section about generic optical mineralogy.
- John Faithful's table from the University of Glasgow: succinct and easy to follow table of minerals and their properties.
Great comprehensive books:
- Super technical: Rock-Forming Minrals in Thin Section by Pichler and Schmitt-Riegraf. ISBN-I3:978-94-0 10-714 5-1
- The GOAT: An Introduction to the Rock-Forming Minerals by Deer, Howie and Zussman. ISBN 978-0903056-33-5
- Great for Pictures: Rocks and Minerals in Thin Section by MacKenzie, Adams and Brodie. ISBN: 978-1-315-11636-5
- Also great for pictures: A Key for Identification of Rock-forming Minerals in Thin-Section by Andrew J. Barker. ISBN: 978-1-315-77869-3
Craig and Vaughan’s book on Ore microscopy and ore petrography contains everything you need to know (and more) on all things you can gather from looking at minerals under reflected light.
This whole project couldn't have been possible without the always faithful stack overflow and w3schools. The inspiration and the majority of the code for the cards on the homepage and the about us page were from the brilliant ettrics, who very generously made their code open source.