… This is an excellent and useful book for its intended audience. … There is also a searchable index by mineral type and by name. The book provides a branching ‘key’ to identifying an unknown spectrum.

It provides a welcome update to the SEM Petrology Atlas …. 'This book is a useful addition to reference works kept in geological SEM and EPMA labs that routinely use EDS detectors for phase identification. It is … as such, most welcome and will certainly find many friends.' (Environmental Geology, Vol. For those it will quickly become an almost indispensable reference …. … this useful work is a true hands-on practical guide particularly to anyone (student or professional) working occasionally or with limited experience with SEM-EDX. 'Everyone using scanning electron microscopy with EDX and anyone who is not the expert will thoroughly appreciate this novel book with flashcard-like spectra for 182 minerals. Student suitability: useful supplemental material for any geologically oriented electron microscopy or electron microprobe class. Providing a very basic introduction to Electron Microscopy and Energy Dispersive Spectrometry, the book’s importance lies in its containing the largest compiled collection of EDS spectra ever published, covering most rock forming minerals.Īudience: An easy-to-use reference tool for all scientists and researchers using Energy Dispersive Spectrometry for identification of minerals. In addition, why not make a key? This would save a fair amount of time for those who are less experienced mineralogists, but, for whatever reason, use an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer to identify minerals.' After several episodes of having to relearn the spectra of some all too common rock forming minerals, I decided that a book of EDS ‘flashcards’ would be useful - a catalogue of the minerals that are commonly found in rocks. For me, however, as I move between projects, it is easy to forget the patterns.

After the mineral is finally identified, it is easy to identify other specimens of similar composition as EDS spectra have very distinctive patterns. It is also amazing how long it takes someone who is not good at mineralogy to search through a mineralogy text, trying to match the peaks on their unknown spectrum with the chemical formula of some mineral. 'This book came about because of my poor memory: it is amazing how quickly and easily an experienced electron microscopist/mineralogist can identify minerals with an Energy Dispersive Spectrometer (EDS).

Energy dispersive spectroscopy table