Hypersthene tonalite photomicrograph cross polarized
Hypersthene is a relatively common mineral and is found in igneous and some metamorphic rocks as well as in stony and iron meteorites It forms a solid solution series with the minerals enstatite and ferrosilite A solid solution series occurs when two or more elements can substitute for each other in a crystal structure without much alteration of the structure In this case the elements are iron and magnesium and enstatite is the magnesium end member of the series Hypersthene is the intermediate member with around 50 iron and ferrosilite is the iron rich end member of the series Enstatite is fairly common but ferrosilite is extremely rare The iron deeply colors the minerals and therefore any deeply colored specimens of this series are usually called hypersthene
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Photo credit: © Scenics & Science / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: chemistry, colours, cross, hypersthene, microscope, mineralogy, photomicrograph, polarized, rainbow, tonalite
