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NWA-2868-animation
This is a thin section of a meteorite called NWA 2864 (NorthWest Africa). It was found in the Sahara and exported from Morocco in 2000.
It is a brecciated chondrite. Brecciated means composed of mixed, crushed material. The brighter bits in the image are silicate minerals, including mostly olivine. The darker bits are the matrix material (the "glue" that holds it all together, and was once shock-melted rock).
The rounded area near the center is matrix surrounding a highly shocked chondrule. The small, dark circles with bright centers are air bubbles in the cement that holds the wafer-thin meteorite section to the microscope slide.
This is a 20X enlargement of the original.
Click on All Sizes to view Original Size and see the animation run. The animation is made by combining 17 different frames, each of which has a polarizer turned 5 degrees from the preceding frame. Note that the area in the lower right seems clear in the beginning but shows obvious radial shock lines as the polarization angle changes.
Thin section acquired from Mike Kagelmacher (Rock-Slides on eBay).
NWA-2868-animation
This is a thin section of a meteorite called NWA 2864 (NorthWest Africa). It was found in the Sahara and exported from Morocco in 2000.
It is a brecciated chondrite. Brecciated means composed of mixed, crushed material. The brighter bits in the image are silicate minerals, including mostly olivine. The darker bits are the matrix material (the "glue" that holds it all together, and was once shock-melted rock).
The rounded area near the center is matrix surrounding a highly shocked chondrule. The small, dark circles with bright centers are air bubbles in the cement that holds the wafer-thin meteorite section to the microscope slide.
This is a 20X enlargement of the original.
Click on All Sizes to view Original Size and see the animation run. The animation is made by combining 17 different frames, each of which has a polarizer turned 5 degrees from the preceding frame. Note that the area in the lower right seems clear in the beginning but shows obvious radial shock lines as the polarization angle changes.
Thin section acquired from Mike Kagelmacher (Rock-Slides on eBay).