Description

This is a 30 micrometer-thick slice of rock called peridotite under polarized lenses on a petrographic microscope. Peridotites are rocks that make up the Earth's upper mantle. The colors displayed are diagnostic of the minerals in the rock, as each mineral refracts light differently. Photo was taken using a Canon camera attached to an Olympus BX-60 petrographic microscope. Field of view is ~3 mm. This peridotite is composed mainly of the minerals olivine and pyroxene and comes from the Pyrenees mountains in France.