Taos, New Mexico – Mineral identification is made easy with the Mineral Database compiled by M. Darby Dyar and Mickey E. Gunter and illustrated by Dennis Tasa. This new Mac app provides a quick reference for students, educators, professionals, or anyone interested in minerals. Search for minerals by selecting physical properties, optical properties, Dana number, Dana class, or many other classification and occurrence criteria; or, browse the mineral photo galleries.
Entries for more than 300 common mineral species cover the vast majority of occurrences without presenting an overwhelming number of obscure species rarely encountered. The software provides hand sample photos, photomicrographs of thin sections, physical properties, crystal shape animations, 3D crystal structures (that you can rotate and enlarge to fill your screen), optical properties, classification, and occurrence data as well as partial data for many more species, varieties, groups, sub-groups, and series.
Search for color, hardness, and streak in field and classroom uses. Use the app as a companion to a polarizing light microscope by searching for birefringence or refractive index. Identify your unknown mineral through use of any or all 54 search criteria. The comprehensive search feature allows mineral identification by using known physical properties (such as color, streak, luster etc.) or crystal and optical properties. Or, you can visually search the hand sample photos and photomicrographs using the pop-up image galleries.
This database complements the authors’ textbook, “Mineralogy and Optical Mineralogy,” available from the Mineralogical Society of America.
System Requirements:
* Requires Max OS X 10.8 or later
* 64-bit processor
* 671 MB
Pricing and Availability:
Mineral Database 1.0 is $9.99 USD (or equivalent amount in other currencies) and available worldwide through the Mac App Store in the Reference category.
Tasa Graphic Arts
Mineral Database 1.0
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In addition to producing iOS apps and multi-touch books, Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc. produces award-winning interactive, educational CD-ROMs covering planetary geology, plate tectonics, topographic maps, rocks and minerals, weather and climate, the processes that shape Earth’s surface, and more. Copyright (C) 2014 Tasa Graphic Arts, Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are the property of their respective owners.