Introduction

Abstract

This book is a compact guide for the identification of rock-forming minerals in a thin section using a polarized light microscope and transmitted plane polarized light. It is based on my teaching experience at the Universities of Heidelberg (Germany), Basel (Switzerland), and Geneva (Switzerland). It is intended to be mainly useful to Bachelor’s students in optical mineralogy and petrography and to microscopists who need to brush up their knowledge in optical mineralogy and the determination of magmatic and metamorphic rocks.