Image: Komatiite (fresh surface)

Komatiite (fresh surface) (10 cm x 6 cm). Ravensthorpe, Western Australia.

Photographer:

Stuart Humphreys

Rights:

© Australian Museum

Additional information

Komatiite is high in magnesium and crystallised at high temperatures. It commonly displays a spinifex (spiky grass) texture consisting of intergrown skeletal and bladed olivine and pyroxene crystals in a glassy groundmass. Most are Archaean in age.

Last Updated: 27 August 2009

Tags volcanic, igneous rocks, volcanoes, specimen, mineralogy, geosciences,