 | A Key for Identification of Rock-Forming Minerals in Thin Section Subjects: Environment & Agriculture; Earth Sciences; Engineering & Technology; Mining Mineral & Petroleum Engineering; Plant & Animal Ecology; Earth Sciences; Biodiversity; Geology - Earth Sciences; Structured in the form of a dichotomous key, comparable to those widely used in botany, the mineral key provides an efficient and systematic approach to identifying rock-forming minerals in thin-section. This unique approach covers 150 plus of the most commonly encountered rock-forming minerals, plus a few rarer but noteworthy ones. Illustrated in Dr Andrew Barker has taught mineralogy and petrology at the University of Southampton for more than 30 years. He has research interests in metamorphic petrology, rock microstructures, fluid infiltration and mineralisation. As well as publishing research papers over three decades, he has also authored a textbook on metamorphic textures and microstructures, and has supervised PhD projects in Europe, Africa and Australia. His initial research concentrated on deformation metamorphism inter-relationships during Caledonian and Hercynian orogenesis in Europe, but subsequently moved to look at mineralised Precambrian terrains in Africa. After a period of sabbatical leave to Australia in the late 1990s, his most recent research has concentrated on fluid infiltration processes, reaction mechanisms and mineralisation. |
