GeoLog

quartz

Imaggeo On Monday: Quartz – sericite mylonite, Calamita, Elba

Imaggeo On Monday: Quartz – sericite mylonite, Calamita, Elba

Concomitant thrusting and magmatism resulted in the development of ductile mylonites in the Calamita Schists, part of the contact aureole of the Late Miocene Porto Azzurro pluton. This mylonite is made up of stretched and recrystallized quartz layers, interlayered with thin sericite-rich levels. Sericite resulted from the crushing of contact-metamorphic minerals such as andalusite, cordierite, …[Read More]

Imaggeo on Mondays: Quartz lawns and crystal flowers

Petrologists spend a large part of their time peering down microscopes at wafer thin slices of rock to work out what they’re made of and how they were formed. What lies on the other side of the lens can be an incredibly beautiful pattern, a kaleidoscope of colour, or stark bands of black and white, …[Read More]