Minerals are the fundamental building blocks of the Earth. A basic understanding of mineral chemistry, mineral occurrence, and mineral identification is a fundamental skill required by all Earth Science disciplines. In this course you will: (1) acquire a basic knowledge of crystal chemistry and crystallography; (2) learn the fundamentals of transmitted polarizing light microscopy; (3) learn the compositions of rock-forming and important accessory minerals, how they form, where they are found, and why they are important; and (4) learn how to identify these minerals in rocks.

Webmineral.com: [Highly recommended] Everything from mineral structures to overviews of physical and optical properties

Smith petrography database: Almost as useful as your textbook with much better pictures to aid in I.D.

UCLA Minerals in thin section

Igneous rocks in thin section

Rock-forming minerals in thin section

University of North Dakota optical mineralogy site

Royal Ontario Museum polarized light microscopy laboratory