School of GeoSciences

Albite glass on paragonite 'rose'

The image shows sheets of paragonite formed at 800ºC, 9 kbar during an experiment to measure the solubility of natural albite. The edges of the paragonite sheets are decorated with rods and beads of albite glass. The paragonite crystals are so thin that they transmit 20kV electrons allowing underlying albite glass to be seen.

The image represents an area approximately 150 µm wide.

 

Image courtesy of Prof. Kirill Shmulovich (Academy of Science, Moscow) and Dr. Martin Lee (now Glasgow University),

taken while working at the University of Edinburgh.

albite rose

The image was used as the front cover illustration for the Mineralogical Society Bulletin No.122, April 1999.