Thin sections minerals & volcanic microtextures

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THIN SECTIONS TUTORIAL

The study of rock minerals and textures is called petrography. Thin section petrography is the study of
microscopic features using a "polarizing" or "petrographic" microscope. Following are two different images
of a petrographic microscope with parts labeled. There are also web sites that go into this in more detail if
you would like to learn more.

What are thin sections? Thin sections are

made from small slabs of a rock sample glued
to a glass slide (~1 inch by 2 inches), and
then ground to a specified thickness of
0.03mm (30 microns). At this thickness most
minerals become more or less transparent and
can then be studied by a microscope using
transmitted light. Thin sections are time
consuming and costly to prepare.
Thin sections are viewed using a petrographic
microscope under two different lighting conditionsplain polarized light and crossed polarizers.
Plane polarized light is light that is constrained to a
single plane. The light wave is a simple sine wave that
has the vibration direction lying in the plane of
polarization.
When viewing under plane polarized light, a single
polarizer (lower polar) is used. Inserting the upper
polarizer is referred to as crossed polarizers (or,
crossed nicols), the name given because the two
polarizing lenses are set at right angles to each other.
Minerals can be classified as anisotropic or as isotropic, depending on their light properties. Isotropic

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minerals show the same velocity of light in all directions, while anisotropic minerals show the velocity of
light varying in different orientations.
For a good look at what someone sees with a polarizing microscope visit this site for their virtual tour
http://met.open.ac.uk/vms/vms.htm
Rock-forming materials that are isotropic include glass and minerals such as Fe-Ti oxides (magnetite and
ilmenite). Volcanic glass will appear as some shade of color (tan to brown) when viewed under plane
polarized light, but will be black when viewed under crossed polarizers. Fe-Ti oxides are black under
either condition.
Anisotropic minerals show different colors when viewed under crossed polarizers. The colors seen are
called interference colors, which can be used to help identify the minerals. Quartz appears as white when
viewed under plane polarized light, and will be white or some shade of gray when viewed under crossed
polarizers. Unfortunately, plagioclase is also white when viewed under plane polarized light, and also has
similar interference colors. Clinopyroxene will be tan to green when viewed under plane polarized light,
and will be a more vibrant color such as blue, pink, or green when viewed under crossed polarizers.
For more information on a polarizing microscope and descriptions of shape and cleavage, interference
colours, relief, extinction angle, color and pleochrosim, twinning, opacity, and vibration directions visit this
site. They have excellent descriptions of what we are looking for in a thin sections using the polarizing
microscope: http://www.bris.ac.uk/Depts/Geol/opmin/mins.html#microscope
The following photos are thin sections of minerals and rock textures you may encounter in the study of
Cassia Mountains ash-flow tuffs. Thin sections of minerals and volcanic microtextures are from the ISU
Geology Department, as well as from several Internet sources, with many from the Geology Department of
the University of N. Carolina.
Minerals

Augite - Note the pigeonite twin lamellae (thin

parallel linear) in this grain. Pigeonite is a Ca-poor
clinopyroxene. The view is under crossed
polarizers. (The sample is from Georgia.)
This is the same view of clinopyroxene in
basalt, but under crossed polarizers.

Another example of clinopyroxene. This one is

in basalt. The view is in plane polarized light.
Plagioclase- this slide showcases one of
plagioclase's very common features: its polysynthetic
twinning. View is under crossed polarizers.

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Quartz- this slide shows quartz in a range of

crystal orientations, all showing typical grayish
interference colors. View is under crossed
polarizers.

Volcanic microtextures
Scoria is another name for a highly vesicular
(almost "frothy") basalt. The black, oval features
in this photomicrograph are vesicles. Note the
acicular, white plagioclase laths throughout and
the white olivine crystal at the lower right. View is
under crossed polarizers. Sample is from Hawaii.

Rhyolite- This crystal-rich rhyolite contains

phenocrysts of quartz, K-feldspar (sanidine),
plagioclase, and biotite in a fine-grained groundmass.
Note the interesting shape of the (partially resorbed?
skeletal?) quartz grain in the center of the
photograph. Biotite (brown) is in the upper left
corner, plagioclase is in the lower left. View is under
crossed polarizers.

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Fiamme are pumice and glass that have collapsed

and compacted. Fiamme often display flame structures
(think of flames in a fire). The elongated white mass in
the center is fiamme. It shows flame structures on the
left and along the bottom. Note the flattened glass
shards draping over minerals.

Spherulites are radiating masses of fibrous

crystals in a glassy matrix. These spherulites are
probably composed of alkali feldspars and some
polymorph of SiO2, and in this cross-polarized
shot, appear as round objects with dark crosses.
Note the large crystal, which forms the nucleus
of one of the spherulites at center-left. View is
under crossed polarizers. Sample is from
Wyoming.
In this tuff, the irregularly shaped glass shards are
still relatively undeformed. Also note the phenocrysts of
quartz (clear) and biotite (dark red) in this slide. View
is under plane polarized light. Sample is from Nevada.

Poorly welded rhyolitic tuff- in this sample,

the glass shards are starting to get deformed.
Note the phenocrysts of quartz (clear) and
biotite (dark red) in this rock. View is under
plane polarized light. Sample is from Nevada.

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Welded rhyolitic tuff- in this sample, the glass

shards are fused together in a swirly mass, and the
large pumice fragment at center right is flattened. In
contrast, quartz phenocrysts are relatively
This photo is of a welded tuff with numerous
undeformed. View is under plane polarized light.
glass shards and broken plagioclase grains.
Sample is from Nevada.
The view is under plane polarized light.

Obsidian vitrophyre - A vitrophyre is another name

for a phenocryst-bearing obsidian. The phenocrysts in
the photomicrograph are mostly plagioclase. The
This photo is showing extinct glass matrix
(elongated black shape), lithic clast (lower left), groundmass is volcanic glass. The view is under
and broken plagioclase grains. The view is under crossed polarizers. (Sample is from Montana.)
crossed polarizers.

Volcanic glass that has completely devitrified will

often have a felty texture, as shown in this
Volcanic glass showing perlitic texture (concentric

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photograph. The minerals that you can see are

plagioclase (white), clinopyroxene (shades of
green), and Fe-Ti oxides (black). View is under
plane polarized light.

curved fractures). A bleb of glass with clinopyroxene

and plagioclase is located below and to the right of the
large plagioclase phenocryst.
I

This slide shows a texture called granophyric.

Granophyric texture is an intergrowth of quartz and
alkali feldspar. In this case, the granophyric texture
radiates out from large plagioclase grains (lower
left-gray, lower right-gray/black). View is under crossed
polarizers.

http://www.brocku.ca/earthsciences/people/gfinn/minerals/database.htm
This site has links to a bunch of sites all concerning rocks in thin sections.
http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/mineralogie/know3.html#thin
This site has pictures of volcanic thin sections.
http://www.geolab.unc.edu/Petunia/IgMetAtlas/volcanic-micro/volcanicmicro.html
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