Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• understand the facts, concepts, principles, theories, classification systems and language associated with minerals and rocks

• use the essential terms, concepts and strategies of mineralogy

• apply knowledge and understanding of the study of rock thin sections using a polarising microscope

• work with and recognise a variety of minerals and microtextures in igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks

• make systematic descriptions and identifications of minerals in rocks, observing them using images of thin sections viewed under a polarising microscope, and deduce how and in what environments the minerals and rocks were formed.