Welcome

Analyze, Identify, Illuminate

Journey into the Heart of Earth's Building Blocks

Either online, hybrid or in-person, this course examines minerals and rocks that make up the Earth’s crust, including their origin, occurrence, and identification. In addition to the recognition of hand specimens, this course utilizes microchemical testing & simple assays, the petrographic microscope and X-ray crystallography to identify minerals and rocks. Furthermore, students will engage in assignments showing their application of acquired mineralogical skills. One or more self guided fieldtrips are essential for this course.

PRACTICAL APPLIED LAB SKILLS

Next to a solid background in mineralogy and optical mineralogy, this course teaches practical, hands-on geoscience skills, some of which are proprietary and only taught at MSU Denver. Next to state-of-art physical mineral identification with professional geoscience tools owned by the students, this course teaches also the rare skill of field wet chromatography testing for rapid elemental analysis as well as the hands-on making of petrographic thin sections.

Learn to Read Earth’s Hidden Wonders - Crystal Secrets

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Welcome

Analyze, Identify, Illuminate

Journey into the Heart of Earth's Building

Blocks

Either online, hybrid or in-person, this course examines minerals and rocks that make up the Earth’s crust, including their origin, occurrence, and identification. In addition to the recognition of hand specimens, this course utilizes microchemical testing & simple assays, the petrographic microscope and X- ray crystallography to identify minerals and rocks. Furthermore, students will engage in assignments showing their application of acquired mineralogical skills. One or more self guided fieldtrips are essential for this course.