Mineral Database

I was looking for an app that would help speed up the identification of minerals in my thin-section work, which otherwise requires a lot of flipping through pages in standard textbooks to find properties that match an unknown mineral. I saw that the Tasa Mineral Database included optical data in its search form, so decided to give it a try. The app is good-looking, with lots of nice photos of nice mineral specimens. It offers a very wide range of potentially useful information about a good variety of minerals. Unfortunately, this information is a mile wide and an inch thick. The app falls down when you try to put it to work. The search feature was my primary interest in the app, but it turned out to be frustratingly inadequate. The search interface is a problem. All fields must be filled by typing in data. For example, in the “Optic type” field, the user must type in “U-n-i-a-x-i-a-l”. There are only three possible choices: Uniaxial, Biaxial, Isotropic. Why couldn’t the field (and other fields that have pre-defined choices) be constructed with a popup list so the user could simply tap the desired choice, rather than having to type in long words (and risk spelling errors on the dinky iPhone screen). It makes searching very laborious, especially when searches turn up no results, requiring the fields to be re-entered. Some search fields offer no hints, so the user has to simply guess what to type, and hope for the best. For example, “geologic occurrence”: what do you type? To try it, I entered “skarn” and got a list of minerals, which didn’t include calcite! Obviously the database is very hit-and-miss. Same for “diagnostic properties”: there is no hint button for this search field, so what do you enter? Interface inconsistencies are another issue. Each image in the photomicrograph gallery has a (i) button to tap for more information. In some photos, the info screen gives useful information about the specimen. In other cases, there is none. For example, in the numerous photomicrographs of quartz, several different and distinctive forms are illustrated, but pressing the info button simply returns “Photo by Peter Crowley”. This is great for Peter Crowley, but tells the user nothing about the specimen: what exactly are we looking at? The photos are uncaptioned, so again we’re left guessing. The animated crystal shape graphic only rotates on a single axis, limiting its use. For example, it would nice to be able to look at a crystal from different angles to ge

This is no fault of the app or developers, but some of the reviews made it seem like it might be a fit for identifying minerals while rockhounding, and it is not, so do not lose your $10 like I did! For example, trying to learn about jasper showed me the entry for quartz. Completely understand why, but totally not at all what I needed. My knowledge is pretty basic so maybe more seasoned folks could get more use out of it; the app functions very well as far as I can tell!

Good for looking up minerals easy to use good price nice pictures

This review is specifically to highlight that this app lacks the option to display its contents in both portrait and landscape mode. Developer, please feel free to let me know if/when you upgrade the app accordingly and I will be happy to amend (and flesh out my review). Meanwhile, I feel like I wasted my money — this is an accessibility issue for me and the lack of landscape mode means I will be far less comfortable viewing its contents on my iPad. Thanks in advance if you upgrade the app...

I use this app to look up minerals that I own or want to add to my collection. The search function is easy and the results are very detailed and helpful. Highly recommended!

I love the 3D structure renderings that can rotated. But the interface is modal, so you must back out of a listing just to see the photos! There should be but a single screen for each mineral that I can just scroll. I would also appreciate a wiggle mode for the 3D structures.

Would have given a 5 star rating if it had more pictures!!

Finally! Professional and advanced armatures rejoice - this is the app for which you have waited. Brilliant. A must.

Should have expected this to come from Tasa. Every serious geologist should have a copy, the only thing I would like to add is the capacity to create a custom library. Again - awesome app! Well done guys!

Great app for helping identify minerals. Some of the optical properties are missing and the organization is lacking. For example if you look up chlorite there is no general formula or properties for a crucial mineral. They have end members with some properties. Overall great app, maybe worth 5. Not 10.