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In rare cases garnets and plagioclase can be found in some samples. [1] Unaltered samples of the Blue Ridge Ophiolite are green or brown. Samples tend to have a grainy texture like sugar, with conchoidal fracture. In thin section the most abundant and easiest to identify mineral is olivine, about 60% to 80% of the thin section. [3]
The Troodos is a unique ophiolite in terms of observing hydrothermal alteration, because it has not been metamorphosed to a high extent or deformed extensively. Therefore, it is easy to see the successions and relationships of the hydrothermal processes to the structure of the ridge.
Chromite can also be presented in a thin section. The grains seen in thin sections are disseminated with crystals that are euhedral to subhedral. [12] Chromite contains Mg, ferrous iron [Fe(II)], Al and trace amounts of Ti. [5] Chromite can change into different minerals based on the amounts of each element in the mineral.
An ophiolite is a section of Earth's oceanic crust and the underlying upper mantle that has been uplifted and exposed, and often emplaced onto continental crustal rocks. The Greek word ὄφις, ophis (snake) is found in the name of ophiolites, because of the superficial texture of some of them. Serpentinite especially evokes a snakeskin.
Antigorite contains water in its structure, about 13 percent by weight. Hence, antigorite may play an important role in the transport of water into the earth in subduction zones and in the subsequent release of water to create magmas in island arcs , and some of the water may be carried to yet greater depths.
Below this mixed layer, at depths of 200–300 m in the open ocean, the temperature begins to decrease rapidly down to about 1000 m. The water layer within which the temperature gradient is steepest is known as the permanent thermocline. [5] The temperature difference through this layer may be as large as 20°C, depending on latitude.
Shallow water marine sediment primarily features larger grain sizes because smaller grains have washed out to deeper water. Within carbonaceous sedimentary rock, evaporite minerals such as gypsum, anhydrite, and halite may be present. [2] The most common evaporite minerals found within modern and ancient deposits are gypsum, anhydrite, and halite.
Chromitite with bronzite phenocrysts from Stillwater Igneous Complex. Chromitite is an igneous cumulate rock composed mostly of the mineral chromite.It is found in layered intrusions such as the Bushveld Igneous Complex in South Africa, the Stillwater igneous complex in Montana and the Ring of Fire discovery in Ontario.