Friday, May 16, 2014

Geo 730: May 16, Day 502: Pile O' Schist

Pyrite and glaucophane stand out in this shot, but I'm not sure what the light colored minerals are. There are at least two different light minerals here- one looks a bit greenish to me, and may be mostly chlorite. The two patches, one above my finger tip, and the other above my finger in the lower left corner, look like they might be quartz. Albite can be a significant constituent of blueschist, but I'd expect better defined cleavage than I see here. Long and short, I'm just not sure. What I am sure of, though, is that this would make a stunning thin section. There are very few rocks as pretty in either plane polarized light or under crossed polars as a nice, coarse-grained blueschist!

Photo unmodified. March 9, 2012. FlashEarth location.

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