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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]
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.
The following tests are some examples of those that are used on hand specimens, or on field samples, or on thin sections with the aid of a polarizing microscope. Color; Color of the mineral. Color alone is not diagnostic. For example quartz can be almost any color, depending on minor impurities and microstructure. Streak
The mineral chromite is an iron chromium oxide with empirical formula FeCr 2 O 4. Structurally, it belongs to the spinel group. Magnesium can substitute for iron in variable amounts as it forms a solid solution with magnesiochromite (MgCr 2 O 4);. [1] Zincochromite is another example.
Stillwater igneous complex around Mouat chromite mine Chromitite with bronzite phenocrysts from Stillwater Igneous Complex Sulfidic serpentintite, platinum-palladium ore from the Stillwater Mine. This is an altered pegmatitic dunite very richly infused with intercumulate Pt/Pd-rich chalcopyrite & pyrrhotite (golden metallic minerals).
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.
Dark layers of chromite-rich cumulate rock alternating with light layers of plagioclase-rich rock in the Bushveld Igneous Complex, South Africa Oxide mineral cumulates form in layered intrusions when fractional crystallisation has progressed enough to allow the crystallisation of oxide minerals which are invariably a form of spinel .
The Kimberley diamonds were originally found in weathered kimberlite, which was colored yellow by limonite, and so was called "yellow ground". Deeper workings encountered less altered rock, serpentinized kimberlite, which miners call "blue ground". Yellow ground kimberlite is easy to break apart and was the first source of diamonds to be mined.