Monday Geology Picture: Serpentinized Harzburgite in Thin Section

For this week’s Monday Geology Picture, I thought I would share a picture of peridotite in thin section viewed under a microscope. This particular  peridotite originates from the Samail Ophiolite, Sultanate of Oman, and is a weakly-deformed harzburgite that is ~40% serpentinized. You can see the fine network of serpentine veins throughout the sample. The brightly-colored patches are olivine and pyroxene minerals. I really enjoy looking at rocks in thin section– rocks can be so beautiful in thin section, particularly when viewed under cross-polarized light.

In other news, the defendable draft of my PhD thesis is due on Friday, so blogging (aside from posting cat pictures on Geokittehs) will continue to be light.