Volcanic beach sand, Devil's Island, Antarctica
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Devil's Island |
Location:
Beach on Devil's Island, West Antarctica, (63°48'S, 057°17'W ; E. of James Ross Island)
Provenance:
mafic to intermediary volcano
Composition:
Pyroxene, hornblende, plagioclase, opaque ore minerals
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Coarse beach sand |
Petrographic thin section:
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Bright field |
Dark field |
In the bright field you can identify the olive green amphiboles and the black ore minerals. The translucent minerals in the dark field show coloures of first and second order; also the cleavability indicates clinopyroxenes
Texture:
Coarse sand (ca. 1500 µ), very poorly sorted, rounded
Sample Number:
heubeck0069
Collector:
Dr. Bernd Weber, Potsdam
Date:
September 2005
Comments:
This beach sand is remarkable because of the predominance of physical weathering and the good preservation of chemically susceptible minerals
