NWA 8159 Meteorite Thin Section

NWA 8159 was quenched from a basaltic melt ~2.3 billion years ago at a time when Mars contained bodies of liquid H₂O. Suddenly ejected from the surface millions of years ago this piece of the war god became a migrant searching for a new home. By fortune it found Earth.

In this thin section, my first taken with the Nikon D810 combined with the LMScope adapter, mineral grains are clearly visible in the lower portion. Indeed, the lower eighth of the thin section seems distinct from the upper. Other noticeable features include the shock melt veins and the glassy clasts. And, if you have stared at it long enough, you may see interesting fractal patterns formed by the black veins which run throughout the entire fragment.

Additional details can be found at Meteorite Studies.

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10x/0.25, 4x/0.25, LMScope, mars, Nikon D810, northwest africa, polarized, scope2, Tucsen C30 3MP sCMOS, zerene stacker

NWA 2737 Meteorite Thin Section

Stunning thin section of the chassignite NWA 2737. This cross polarized view of one of the rarest Martian meteorites captures a scene on the surface of the Red Planet of intense violence. The brownish coloration of the olivine results from the influence of intense shock pressures. More details at Meteorite Studies.

Additional photomicrographs of this thin section at Meteorite Thin Section Gallery.

Nikon D810 with 10x/0.25 objective:

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Tucsen 3MP sCMOS with 4x/0.25 objective:

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10x/0.25, A3550UPA CCD 5MP, breccia, LMScope, mars, Nikon D810, northwest africa, polarized, scope2, Tucsen C30 3MP sCMOS, zerene stacker

NWA 8171 Meteorite Thin Section

A first hand look at the basaltic crust of Mars, this thin section specimen of the NWA 8171 meteorite (aka Black Beauty) provides an exquisite and unforgettable glimpse back to a time when Mars had oceans of water on its surface. More information from Space Jewels.

Information from Meteorite Studies

This thin section has been photographed with all three of my cameras. You can directly compare the results from the three versions.

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