TEACHING CARBONATE PETROLOGY USING DIGITAL METHODS

Digital methods are a great boon to instruction in petrography. High-quality digital images, easily obtained and presented, provide students exposure to complex visual information beyond the confines of the laboratory. Developing petrographic expertise with sedimentary rocks in particular requires repeated contact with multiple examples because of the heterogeneous nature of these rocks. Because of their prominent biogenicity, limestones (and to some degree, dolomites) differ from sandstones and mudrocks in terms a larger range of particle size and complexity of particle shape and overall rock fabric. As a consequence, digital presentation of petrographic images of limestone requires an approach that allows a single image to be presented across a range of scales (i.e., the image must be zoomable). The layered pdf format has proven to be an effect approach for the presentation of petrographic images of limestones. This format is easily transferable across different computer platforms and allows easy insertion of information relating to the identification of petrologic features.