Zircon and haematite. Jos Plateau, Nigeria
250µm
This is a concentrate from a river placer. A euhedral zircon (centre) shows zoning and very thin haematite (grey-white) veinlets cross-cutting the growth zones. The other zircons have porous cores with a faint red surface colour due to submicroscopic haematite inclusions (left) within well polished inclusion-free outer zones. Pare higher reflectance spots (bottom centre) within zircon are discrete haematite crystals.
Grain mount, plane polarized light, x 80, air
