Instructions for the Use of the

Unknown Materials Table

For initial documentation of the various common building minerals and other minerals, click on the "Printer Ready ID Forms" button and print copies of the black chart.

Select a building material from the "Material Selection" list at the top-right.

Vary  the set-up of the microscope by setting the variables (immersion oil, analyzer, gypsum plate, stage rotation) in the tables on the right hand side. 

Systematically determine the identity of the various materials based on their optical properties.

This exercise is open in a separate page. You can move back and forth easily  between the "PLM Homepage" and the "Petrographic Standards"  and the "Unknown Materials" page. Use these resources!

If you are uncertain on how to determine a particular petrographic characteristic, then return to the "PLM Homepage" and proceed to the link to the description of the particular trait with which you are experiencing problems.