Rocking Colors
By slicing rocks very thin and using special filters, geologists can turn a drab-looking rock sample into a slice of color. These photographs zoom in on tiny sections of rock just a few millimeters across. The images can tell geologists about the formation and composition of a rock, or, as Italian geoscientist Bernardo Cesare discovered, they can provide a palette for artistic beauty.
Above, a sample of slag (a byproduct from smelting ore into metals) provided by Ivana Angelini. Read the full article.
Plastic Under the Lens
Rocks aren't the only material that can reveal colors using the technique. This is a fragment of a plastic bag.
Russian Rock
This is one of Cesare's favorite images, a type of metamorphic rock called a schist bearing the mineral charoite.
Garnet Peridotite
A garnet peridotite from Alpe Arami, Switzerland.
Graphite Glory
Graphite (the mineral used to make pencil "lead") in a metamorphic rock called a granulite from Kerala, India. The sample was provided by Satish Kumar.
Madagascar Jasper
Ocean Jasper from Madagascar is on of Bernardo Cesare's favorite rock micrographs, due to its flower-like patterns.
Charoite-bearing Rock
Charoite-bearing rock from Yakutia, Russia
Manitoba Color
A granulite (a type of metamorphic rock) from Manitoba, Canada, provided by Martha Growdon.
Burning Love
Crystals in a chunk of lava from Lipari, Italy, take the shape of a heart.
Crystal Forms
Crystals of the mineral plagioclase in gabbro, an igneous rock.
Ocean Jasper
Ocean Jasper from Madagascar.
