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Meteorite Thin sections
en.wikipedia.org
In optical mineralogy and petrography, a thin section is a laboratory preparation of a rock or mineral sample for use with a
polarizing microscope. A thin sliver of rock is cut from the sample with a diamond saw or laser, mounted on a glass slide and
then ground smooth using progressively finer abrasive grit until the sample is only 0.03 mm thick.
Thin sections are prepared in order to investigate the optical properties of the minerals in the rock. This work is a part of
petrology and helps to reveal the origin and evolution of the parent rock.
http://soil.gsfc.nasa.gov
To prepare thin sections, undisturbed blocks of soil or other Earth material are filled with a glue, called epoxy resin, and are
heated. Next, the blocks are allowed to harden and then placed in a block machine that saws off 1 cm diameter chips. A
good specimen chip is selected and polished, then placed on a glass slide. The slide and the chip are placed in the thin
section machine and are trimmed to 50 microns thick on the slide.
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