Gypsum Thin Section

Gypsum when accurately cut to the required thickness was commonly used with polarizing microscopes as a sensitive tint plates or 1st order red plates which could be inserted into the light path of a microscope using crossed polars.

Gypsum thin section. Gypsum thin section type. If impurities are present gypsum may also appear to be red brown or yellow. If a mineral commonly has a range of colours it will appear once for each colour.

Gypsum in thin section. Gypsum thin section colorful world. Good cleavage in one direction only fair in two others to produce thin rhombic fragments.

The instability of gypsum or bassanite may also account for the lack of correspondence between xrd results and thin section or sem observations e g. Within the tables minerals are arranged by colour so as to help with identification. Though trying to bend good crystals is not recommended as their flexibility is weak and if flexed too much they will break gypsum has the same chemical composition as the mineral anhydrite but contains water in its structure which anhydrite lacks.

Gypsum crystals are known for their flexibility and slim crystals can be slightly bent. View chapter purchase book read full chapter. Gypsum caso 4 2h 2 o gypsum is the most abundant sulphate mineral.

Miller et al 1989. By rotating the stage you can see all of the amazing colors in the minerals brought out by the gypsum plate. Identification tables for common minerals in thin section these tables provide a concise summary of the properties of a range of common minerals.

Usually white colorless or gray in massive form crystals are clear transparent to translucent. It often occurs in extensive masses of great thickness in association with iimestones and shales and in evaporite deposits. Rock gypsum plane polars.