Thin sections are thin slices of rock, 30 micrometers (~0.001") thick, glued to a glass slide. At this thickness, most minerals are transparent. The images below were taken at magnifications ranging from 20x to 200x, in both plane light and cross-polarized light. The colors, textures, and forms are remarkable and make wonderful artwork.
Allanite from a granitic augen gneiss, Poplar Mountain Gneiss, Millers Falls, Massachusetts.
Anastomosing foliation in a Vermont schist, eastern Green Mountains.
Concentric layers of quartz, celadonite, and calcite filling a bubble in basalt. Source unknown.
Partially serpentinized olivine included in hornblende, Nubble Point gabbro, Cape Neddic, Maine.
Petrified Wood, central Montana.
Chert replacement of oolitic limestone.
Albite porphyroblasts in muscovite schist, Hoosac Formation, Town of Florida, Berkshires, Massachusetts.
Interstitial augite between plagioclase in anorthosite, Moxie pluton, Greenville, Maine.
Chlorite replacing garnet in Littleton Formation, New Salem, Massachusetts.
Stained Clinton Formation limestone, New York. Red is calcite, purple is ferroan calcite, blue is ferroan dolomite, white is dolomite or epoxy.
Detail of corona reaction textures in a metamorphosed gabbro, Adirondacks, New York.
Basalt lava flow, Hamden, Connecticut.
Olivine crystals in basalt, Iceland.
Staurolite, garnet, and fibrous sillimanite in a schist, southern Maine.
Woody fragment in a Cretaceous hadrasaur coprolite, largely replaced by calcite.
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Schenectady, NY 12308 U.S.A. |