Olivine

Steven Dutch, Professor Emeritus, Natural and Applied Sciences, Universityof Wisconsin - Green Bay

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Plane-Polarized Light

• Moderately high relief
• Clear, occasionally very light yellowish or greenish
• No cleavage
• Commonly rimmed with greenish alteration products (A)
• Internal fracturing of grains common (B)
• Never occurs with quartz

Crossed Polarizers

• Bright second-and third-order interference colors.
• Alteration products tend to have low interference colors.

Below is a typical view of olivine in plane polarized light. Note the highrelief and the low-relief alteration products between grains.

Same field in crossed polars, showing the "stained glass window"appearance.

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Created 22 Sept 1997, Last Update