Week 2-3 : Optical properties of opaque minerals in plane polarized light and under crossed nicol

  1. They assist in the identification of minerals – study their optical properties under the microscope.
  2. Minerals are inorganic chemical compounds having a certain lattice shape, size and symmetry, being a result of the geometrical arrangement of the constituents (chemical elements such as Si, Al, O, etc).
  3. Lattice (symmetry) + chemistry (nature of the chemical elements of the lattice) combine to make a unique mineral phase.
  4. The lattice (internal symmetry) of the mineral is reflected not only in the symmetry of the external crystal shape but also in the symmetry of optical properties of the mineral; therefore, determining the optical properties of an unknown phase assists in identifying the mineral phase;
  5. Mineral identification is needed in petrological studies, structural geology, mineral exploration etc…

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