Burnham Petrographics

Verda Fletcher

Borasilite

Reflections & Comparisons

EBSD Image

Reefscans

Verda Fletcher

Images by the late Verda Fletcher

Verda was a retired schoolteacher and long-time customer whose aim was to locate as many California minerals as she could, photograph them in thin section, and publish the images in a large-format art book. In March of 2005 she exhibited examples of her work at a show entitled "A Vision in Polarized Light" at the Clark Historical Museum in Eureka, California. The scanned image of quartz and mica below (X-polars w/gypsum plate) is a portion of the postcard announcement of the show; a full version of this image also appeared in The March 23, 2005 edition of the Eureka Reporter. Sadly, Verda passed away in May of 2015 at the age of 92.

Quartz & Mica

These spectacular photos of agate were taken under crossed-polars
with gypsum accessory plate inserted.

Three images of the same zircon crystal: plane light (l);
X-polars; X-polars with gypsum plate (r). (X8).

Excellent example of a pleochroic halo (black) surrounding an euhedral
zircon inclusion in biotite (plane-polarized light). (X10).

Sheaves of chlorite; X-polars with gypsum accessory plate. (X10).

Transparent zircon surrounded by cloudy feldspar(?);
plane-light (l); X-polars w/gypsum plate (r). (X20).

All the following spectacular thin section images exhibit minerals from the Coyote Peak mafic alkalic diatreme, Humboldt County, California.

Diopside (l), Hornblende and Arfvedsonite (r).

Hornblende (l), Eckermanite and Phlogopite (r).

Pectolite

Thin section of typical Coyote Peak mineral assemblage (l), nephelene and cancrinite (r).

Diopside (large, colorless crystal) showing characteristic orthogonal pyroxene cleavage traces.

Albite (l), Sodalite and Aegerine (r).

Thomsonite (l), Aegerine-augite and Gonnardite (r).

Eckermanite poodle.

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