Rocks and Microscopy > Gabbro, Bushveld, SA by Ian Butler

134 images taken on a modified meiji microscope under crossed polars using Zeiss objective projection to a Nikon D60 and stiched using PTGUI.

The sample comes from the Critical Zone of the 2.06Ga Bushveld complex in S. Africa, by far the largest layered igneous intrusion in the world. There's some rather nice pyroxene exsolution textures in the section which indicate emplacement and crystallisation at high P and T, in other words pretty much what you'd expect for deep crustal emplacement of an enormous mafic intrusion.