Dunite Thin Section

In addition you can now order matching hand specimens for each thin section.

Dunite thin section. Our finest thin sections have been a classroom standard for over 40 years. In transmitted light thin sections reveal the texture and crystal shape of the mineralogy while through polarized light the mineralogy is awash in color allowing for more complete mineral identification. They are thin slices that have been carefully ground down and polished so thinly that light can pass through the mineral structures.

When purchased individually each 27 x 46 mm slide is packaged as an explano mount with a study sheet in a durable plastic sleeve. To examine the relationship between dunite and harzburgite three harzburgite dunite sections were intensively sampled. The thin section is dominated by large cracked plates of olivine with unusually high birefringence colours the thin section may be a little more than 30 microns thick pale green grains of pyroxene with slightly lower relief and evidence of cleavage plagioclase feldspar apparently filling pore spaces and opaque chromite grains.

Dunite is an almost pure olivine rock this sample shows recrystallisation and a crystalloblastic texture with 120 triple junctions between grains. A thin section a 10 millimetre wide microscope slice of dunite from dun reveals the beautiful coloration under polarised light of interlocking grains of olivine. Dymek et at 1975b.

In europe it occurs in the troodos mountains of cyprus. Hd2 relatively thick lenticular shaped dunite with broad contact zones hd3 thin lenticular shaped dunite and hd7 irregular shaped dunite. Photographs below are of the actual slide you will receive.

A massive exposure of dunite in the united states can be found as twin sisters mountain near mount baker in the northern cascade range of washington. The small black grains are chromite which is opaque under the microscope. Many but not all of the studies of 72415 were conducted under a loosely knit consortium led by the caltech group e g.

It is a common rock in earth s upper mantle. The dunite from dun mountain is part of the ultramfic section of the dun mountain ophiolite belt. Dunite usually forms sills tabular bodies intruded between other rocks but may also occur as lenses thin edged strata or pipes funnels more or less oval in cross section that become narrower with increasing depth.