These samples also give great context to a sample residing on my desk from Byrock, that I collected during my PhD. (5/5)

Rummaging through samples in Sedgwick Museum here at Cambridge I found most of the original samples in storage! I have read each publication and carried out fieldwork at each site, so seeing these thin sections here helps bring home closer while postdoc-ing far away from Australia. (4/5)

Although not the first, the first was slightly north to El Capitan at Byrock (1887), when published by David and Anderson (1889) it was accompanied by the first bulk analyses from both Byrock and El Capitan, showing geochemically the existence of ultrapotassic igneous rocks in Australia. (2/5)

#earth-science #geoscience ⚒️

This is a thin section of a leucitite from the El Capitan volcanic centre in eastern Australia. This specific thin section is very special, since it was the second recorded occurrence of lucite in Australia! Here is a short story on some cool samples I found. (1/5)

I've started visiting places on my UK geology checklist

I'll always be excited seeing zoning, inclusions, twinning in large phenocrysts. An added bonus was using the feldspars to observe offset in granite plutons.

An awesome couple of days checking out some metasomatised granites at Cligga Head, Cornwall