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nishimoto.rocks
'Vietnam Basalt' from Tỉnh Gia Lai, Vietnam; OPL, FOV=ca.5 mm #thinsection #petrology #petrography #polarizingmicoscope
「ベトナムバサルト」の偏光顕微鏡写真
October 10, 2025 at 6:28 AM
kleinergeologe.bsky.social
Normally I'm a sucker for rare element and rare earth element minerals, but this round has to go to Titanite.
And not just because they appeared in my hand-grinded thinsection of some tephrite feom the Kaiserstuhl volcanic complex 👀
#MinCup2025
#Titanite
parallel polarized light image of two large titanite crystals in a groundmass of alterated brownish ad grey minerals. One titanitw shows 120° cleavages throughout its mineral body crossed polarized microscope image of the samw titanite pair. Their interference colors show a brownish orange to green color.
September 11, 2025 at 7:48 PM
kristinadunkel.bsky.social
It's been a while, but I just found this "spherulitite" thinsection from the Oslo rift area in our teaching collection and thought that's my sign to contribute to #ThinsectionThursday again! 😃
September 4, 2025 at 1:03 PM
kleinergeologe.bsky.social
One of the main reason to vote for both are exotic melts, undersaturated or devoid of SiO2. Like this carbonatite from the Kaiserstuhl volcanic complex I made into a big thinsection!
#MinCup2025
a glass plate is held vertically by index finger and thumb in the picture frame. On it is a semi-translucent rock slide, grinded down to approximately 30 microns. The mineral assemblage is a mix of mostly translucent pristine and light-brown alterated calcite with long, feather-like crystal shapes. Dotted around as undefined blobs are dark brown to black opaque oxide minerals. It's a thinsection of a intrusive carbonatite from the Kaiserstuhl volcanoc complex, Baden-Württemberg, Germany. Same picture of the carbonatite thinsection, but held with fewer fingers in the frame.
September 4, 2025 at 12:47 PM
nishimoto.rocks
Phlogopite basalt from Kurayoshi, Tottori, Japan; FOV=ca.5 mm
金雲母玄武岩(鳥取県倉吉市産)の偏光顕微鏡写真
#thinsection #petrology #petrography #polarizingmicoscope
August 10, 2025 at 8:22 AM
nishimoto.rocks
Stilpnomelane schist from Nagatoro, Saitama, Japan; OPL, FOV=ca.1 mm #thinsection #petrology #petrography #polarizingmicoscope
スティルプノメレン片岩の偏光顕微鏡写真
July 25, 2025 at 6:47 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
#ThinSectionThursday

Barroisite - phengite - garnet schist, a retrogressed #eclogite from the Sanbagawa Belt of Japan

⚒️
#geology #thinsection #minerals
Minerals under the microscope Minerals under the microscope
July 24, 2025 at 7:27 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Can alteration be beautiful?

'balls' of retrogressed cordierite in a high-grade hornfels. Contact aureole of the Giglio Pluton.

#geology #thinsection and early #ThinSectionThursday

FOV 3 mm, CPL
Minerals in thin section
July 16, 2025 at 11:36 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Garnet - Vesuvianite - Diopside - Wollastonite calcsilicate rock (ex marble) - Stitching

#MineralMonday #geology #thinsection #minerals
Garnet - Vesuvianite - Diopside - Wollastonite calcsilicate rock in thin section
July 14, 2025 at 9:20 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Starting from where I have left... #Vesuvianite grains in contact metamorphosed #marble

#geology #thinsection #petrography #minerals #MineralMonday #metamorphism
vesuvianite crystals in thin section vesuvianite crystals in thin section
July 14, 2025 at 8:13 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Just a 3ad with many garnet photos

#geology #thinsection #minerals #thinsectionthursday (late)

The rock is a grossular marble where garnet occurs together with wollastonite, diopside and vesuvianite
garnet in thin section
July 11, 2025 at 2:21 PM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Biotite fish in mylonitic granite.
Island of Elba, Italy

FOV 3 mm

#geology #thinsection #granite #mylonite #micafish #biotite
June 27, 2025 at 1:15 PM
calamitaman.bsky.social
If I had a penny for every mylonite I have seen, I would now have about 75 pennies!

#geology #thinsection #petrography #granite #mylonite
June 27, 2025 at 1:05 PM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Again, my new love: orthoamphibole + olivine contact metamorphosed serpentinite

#geology #thinsection #petrography #MineralMonday #minerals
contact metamorphosed serpentinite
June 16, 2025 at 9:04 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Sheared tourmaline #MineralMonday
FOV 3 mm CPL | PPL

#geology #petrography #miscoscope #thinsection #tourmaline #granite
tourmaline crystals at the microscope tourmaline crystals at the microscope
June 16, 2025 at 8:17 AM
nwm.bsky.social
I may have just discovered the true worth of LLM image generation… #thinsection #plagioclase #geology
Rotating cute cartoony plagioclase grain
June 6, 2025 at 8:42 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
There's plenty of fish in the Ocean

biotite-fishes happily swimming to the east in a sea of recrystallized quartz and feldspar.
FOV 3 mm CPL

#geology #thinsection #mylonite #granite
mylonitic granite
June 6, 2025 at 8:19 AM
kleinergeologe.bsky.social
For #ThinSectionThursday I present my very first self made thinsection of an hornblende amphibolite from the austrian alps!
I made it on a large 10x7.5cm glass plate to preserve its natural shape.
Cross polarized light (XPL) close-up image of the amphibolite thinsection. anhedral to subhedral bladed hornblende minerals are clustered in bands and oriented from the top-left to bottom-right. Some show interference colors from yellowish-magenta to magenta-blue. Many others simply show their green color with no interference colors. Space between hornblende bands is filled with granular, anhedral plagioclas. They show light grey to blueis-grey interference color. Two cavities on the left and right edge of the images are black. Parallel polarized light (PPL) image from the same area. Hornblende minerals show a dark green color. Plagioclase and cavities remain transparent. Close up of a single hornblende mineral in XPL. Interference color is a honey-gold yellow. Man dark streaks representing cleavage planes cut the grain and display for amphibol typical 120° & 60° angles. In the lower left side I'm holding the raw amphibolite rock in front of a window. It is dark with white spots showing weak foliation texture. Near the upper right the large thinsection of the other half of the same rock rest on the window and is illuminated from the background. It shows the green hue of the amphibole minerals and eye-shaped lenses of transparent plagioclas.
June 5, 2025 at 12:31 PM
nishimoto.rocks
What does this look like?
"Emerald Pearl"-Larvikite from Norway OPL, FOV=ca.5mm #thinsection #petrology #petrography #polarizingmicoscope
June 5, 2025 at 12:05 PM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Another folded clinopyroxene-quartz layer

#geology #thinsection
Microphoto of a folded rock
June 4, 2025 at 11:18 AM
calamitaman.bsky.social
It's not #FridayFold but let's pretend it is.
Folded calcsilicate layers in amphibolitic hornfels, Elba, Italy

FOV 3 mm, PPL

#RockInTuesday #geology #thinsection
Microphoto of folds in rock
June 4, 2025 at 8:49 AM
kleinergeologe.bsky.social
Finally did what I wanted for many years studying geoscience: Making my own thinsection(s).
For some time I already had a slab of amphibolite prepared but not an appropriate sized glass plate. Now I could go to work with my grinding and polishing powder because I did it all by hand.
Two rock samples glued on a 10cm x 7.5cm frosted glass plate set on a piece of aluminum foil. One rock sample is a metagabbro with darker mm-sized minerals in a olive green finer ground mass. The second rock sample is elongated, with sub-mm mineral grains and a mix of darker and transparent minerals. Some left over epoxy resin mixed with a wooden toothpick is next to the two samples on the aluminium foil. Close up of the finished large thinsection of the elongated rock sample held infront of a bright background. It now reveals the dark green coloration of the darker mineral grains. microscopic view of the finished thinsection of the elongated rock sample. The mineral grains are itself are positioned in a left - right orientation. Amphibole mineral grains show a mix of darker, bottle green coloration and brighter olive-green. Feldspar minerals inbetween are transparent to cloudy and don't have a clear crystalline shape. Another microscopic image of the finished thinsection. Darker bottle-green amphiboles are surrounded by olive green amphiboles with translucent colorless feldspar minerals around the amphibole cluster. A few opaque minerals are dotted are visible spread out in the image.
May 25, 2025 at 6:32 PM
calamitaman.bsky.social
I should remember this sample when #PrideMonth starts

White mica crystals surrounded by wollastonite in a marble

#geology #petrography #muscovite #thinsection
White mica crystals in marble in thin section White mica crystals in marble in thin section
May 13, 2025 at 12:58 PM
art-h-ropod.bsky.social
Historic Lomax #thinsection of a classic marine "bullion" concretion from the Upper #Carboniferous (~310 MYA) of Lancashire, UK, reveals dozens of tiny #fossil juvenile & embryonic ("ammonitella") #goniatite shells in an organic-rich carbonate matrix. #MolluscMonday #ammonoid #cephalopods
A large (~10 cm X 15cm) "antique" glass-mounted thin section through a concretionary nodule ("bullion") shows dozens of small planispirally coiled and chambered shells clustered randomly together. The shells are in various orientations with respect to the plane of the section. In most, the inner whorls appear clear, with sediment or secondary mineral-fill in the outer (body chamber) portion. The irregularly shaped surrounding rock matrix is very dark in contrast. The roughly rectangular cover slip shows a thin rim of amber coloured adhesive. On the right side of the section, a scale graduated in millimetres indicates the overall size. A small circular label in the lower right reads, "JAMES LOMAX - PETROLOGIST" around the outer margin and, "MOSES GATE - BOLTON" in the centre. In the upper right, a small typed label ("No. 2.") is affixed. The section was likely produced sometime in the late 1800's or early 1900's. A close-up view of the thin section showing details of the very small coiled goniatite shells.
May 5, 2025 at 1:00 PM
calamitaman.bsky.social
Happy #MineralMonday !

Tremolite fibers in thermo-metamorphosed serpentinite from Elba, Italy, FOV: 3mm, CPL

#geology #thinsection #amphibole
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Tremolite crystals in serpentinite, as seen under the microscope
April 28, 2025 at 7:33 AM