University of Alberta Mineralogy Virtual Tour

Mineral Matters #428

The University of Alberta Faculty of Science has a Mineralogy & Petrology Museum Virtual Tour available online.

From the website: “Established in 1912, the Mineralogy & Petrology Collection is one of the oldest systematic mineral and rock collections in Canada. It currently contains about 12,000 specimens, of which more than a thousand are on display in the Mineralogy & Petrology Museum.”.

This is the second of these virtual facilities that I have come across. It is really only good for encouraging people to come in and see the collection in person (and it is free admission!). If, like me, you are unlikely to travel to Alberta any time soon, it is of little use.

The technology may not work for everyone. For example, I tend to use the Brave browser. On Brave, I get an error when I try to run the tour (ERROR: Adobe Flashplayer or HTML5 Browser with WebGL or CSS3D support required!). But it does work on Microsoft Edge.

The virtual tour could be significantly improved by having more click points, such as the one for the fluorescent display. Unfortunately, most of the virtual museum is of little use as you can’t see any detail when you zoom in.

Below: Fluorescent display.