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Image: Chromitic serpentinite Styria Province, Austria

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Description: Chromitic serpentinite (7.9 cm across) from the Kraubath Complex (Speik Complex) in the Eastern Alps of Austria. The Kraubauth Complex is an ultramafic massif dominated by metamorphosed dunites & harzburgites. The original rock (protolith) was a Proterozoic-Early Paleozoic upper mantle dunite peridotite that has been multiply metamorphosed during the Devonian, Permian, and Mesozoic. Greenish = serpentine; black = chromite (FeCr2O4 - iron chromium oxide). Locality: Sommergraben, Murz River Valley area, Muralpen, Eastern Alps, central Styria Province, Austria. Ophiolites are fragments of oceanic lithosphere (basaltic crust + uppermost mantle) that have been metamorphosed and plastered onto the edges of continental lithospheric plates by obduction (the opposite of subduction).
Title: Chromitic serpentinite Styria Province, Austria
Credit: Chromitic serpentinite (Kraubath Complex; Sommergraben, Murz River Valley area, Styria Province, Austria)
Author: James St. John
Usage Terms: Creative Commons Attribution 2.0
License: CC BY 2.0
License Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0
Attribution Required?: Yes

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