Eclogite Slide

Stunning peridotite thin section exhibiting the bright and beautiful colours of olivine and pyroxene punctuated by relatively abundant plagioclase. Peridotite is a dense, coarse grained, ultramafic igneous rock consisting largely of olivine and pyroxene.

Diorite thin section slide. Diorite is a grey to dark-grey intermediate intrusive igneous rock composed principally of plagioclase feldspar (typically andesine), biotite mica, hornblende, and/or pyroxene. This particular material was collected in Cumbria.

We provide a full range of igneous, sedimentary, metamorphic and mineral thin sections. Click here to view them. Should you require a microscope, they can be found here.

Bytownite basalt thin section slide exhibiting phenocryts of bytownite feldspar within a fine basaltic groundmass. These thin sections depict beautifully a textbook porphyritic texture. Each section is made to 30 microns thickness and the glass is 46 x 27 mm in size.

Pumice thin section slide exhibiting the highly vesicular nature of this extrusive igneous rock. Pumice lavas tend to be silicic or felsic which are highly viscous thus do not allow the gas bubbles to escape efficiently.This material was collected from the Lipari islands of Italy.