minerals

Earth Science Week 2020: Earth Materials in Our Lives – an A-Z!

Hazel Gibson and Terri Cook October 2, 2020

Large similar folds in a salt mine in the Carpathians. Credit: Janos Urai (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Since 1998 the American Geosciences Institute has been running an annual celebration of all things geoscience – Earth Science Week. From its inception, Earth Science Week has grown in popularity and is now celebrated across the planet. This year Earth Science Week will run from 11 to 17 October and the theme of the week is “Earth Materials in Our Lives.” As the American Geoscien ...[Read More]

GeoTalk: Nadine Gabriel, creator of #AreYouSiO2? and Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals.

Hazel Gibson September 11, 2020

Credit: Nadine Gabriel

Hi Nadine, thanks for speaking with us today, can you tell us a little bit about your background and how you got to where you are now? Thank you for inviting me! I’m a geologist and the Assistant Curator of Fossil Mammals at the Natural History Museum, London. I studied MSci Geology at University College London and I absolutely enjoyed the subject. It was really interesting to learn about the geol ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: The Grid – A serpentine pseudomorph after carbonate

Kristina G Dunkel June 1, 2020

The Grid - A serpentine pseudomorph after carbonate. Credit: Kristina Dunkel (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

The structures in this photo might look three-dimensional, but they are completely flat. It is a photo of a polished thinsection of a rock, taken through a petrographic microscope under cross-polarized light. The width of the image is just 2 mm. The brownish mineral around the edges is carbonate, the white to grey mineral in the centre is serpentine, a water-bearing silicate mineral. The different ...[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: River in a charoite schist

Olivia Trani May 14, 2018

River in a Charoite Schist. Credit: Bernardo Cesare (distributed via imaggeo.egu.eu)

Polarized light photomicrograph of a thin section of a charoite-bearing schist. Charoite is a rare silicate found only at one location in Yakutia, Russia. For its beautiful and uncommon purple color it is used as a semi-precious stone in jewelry. Under the microscope charoite-bearing rocks give an overall feeling of movement, with charoite forming fibrous mats that swirl and fold as a result of de ...[Read More]