|
|
 |
|||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||
| JOURNAL HOME | HELP | CONTACT PUBLISHER | SUBSCRIBE | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
Professor Emeritus, Virginia Tech Geosciences, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia 24061
| The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below. |
This book is a good news, bad news situation. The good news is that it is a great color picture book; the bad news is that it is virtually nothing but a great color picture book. In the preface, the editor states that he prepared this as a supplement to Paul Ramdohr’s famed 1969 reference The Ore Minerals and Their Intergrowths. The idea was to offer "color photos for as many different ore minerals as possible...[because]...it is simply impossible to deduce color tints from black and white micrographs or descriptions alone." To this end, the editor has been successful.
The editor goes on to say, "this atlas does not attempt to be a handbook on how to examine ore minerals...or distinguish textures for obtaining genetic information...but rather it is meant as a search file for comparative use...text is limited to a minimum." The resulting work is, indeed, long on pictures and very short on text. Consequently, the utility of this book is severely limited. It certainly is far too complex for students who need information on textures, parageneses, or optical techniques. On the other hand, it will not be used as a tool by experienced microscopists, who will rely upon the electron microprobe to identify minerals rather than delve through hundreds of pictures of variously colored tiny mineral grains.
It is not clear what is meant by "search file for comparative use" because there
| JOURNAL HOME | HELP | CONTACT PUBLISHER | SUBSCRIBE | ARCHIVE | SEARCH | TABLE OF CONTENTS |
