Monday, August 20, 2012

USB Microscope Close Ups

For today's blog posting, I pulled out my USB microscope.

The first three photos are close ups of Michigan Greenstone, our state gem.  Chlorastrolite is a green or bluish green stone that has finely radiated or stellate masses that have a "turtleback" pattern. The stellate masses tend to be chatoyant, meaning they have a changeable luster. This chatoyancy can be subtranslucent to opaque. Chlorastrolite is a variety of pumpellyite: Ca2(Mg,Fe)Al2(SiO4)(Si2O7)(OH)2·H2O. Chlorastrolite was once thought to be an impure variety of prehnite or thomsonite.



Here is a close up of rough greenstone.


Here is a close up picture of Michigan float copper.  This specimen has some oxidized portions.


An agate from out west...


The following specimen is a close up of a moss agate.

Another agate....


And a bumble bee...


No comments:

Post a Comment