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DIOPSIDE IN CALCITE
Marble
Essex County, New York
The rounded crystals are diopside, a member of the pyroxene family. They
are surrounded by calcite. Notice the grid of lines in the upper crystal.
These are the traces of cleavage planes viewed end-on; the nearly
rectangular pattern they form is typical of pyroxenes and helps to identify
them. You are looking at this crystal parallel to both cleavage planes; the
same pattern does not appear in the two other diopside grains because
they are oriented differently in the thin section. The different colors of
the three diopside grains is also due to their difference in orientation.
Crossed polarizers
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