Outcrop and Hand Sample Photos and Videos

Click on the image to enlarge.

This outcrop is on a busy road.  The schist is coated in a dark later of pollution from car exhaust, making it look black on the outcrop.  A fresh surface reveals a shiny silver schist.

The staurolite is the large orange porphyroblasts in the hand sample.  Dark minerals are biotite.  Much of the rock is muscovite, some quartz, a little plagioclase.  Kyanite is rumored to be present.  Tiny garnets are hardly visible in hand sample.

Thin Section Photos and Videos

Click on the image to make it larger. 1st = plane polarized light; 2nd = cross-polarized light.

Area 1

Biotite (brown in ppl) and staurolite (yellow in ppl, top left) porphyroblasts.  High-relief euhedral mineral is garnet.  Qtz and muscovite are also present.

Area 2

Staurolite (yellow), qtz, garnet (isotropic, high relief), a little muscovite.

Area 3

Close up of garnets (+ stl, qtz, musc).  Note the pattern of inclusions in the garnet in ppl.

Area 4

Entire thin section scan. 1st = ppl; 2nd = xpl. Click on the image to make it larger.

This thin section is super interesting for thinking about deformation and metamorphic events.