Bronzite

This bronzite (orthopyroxenite) is from very close to our favorite taverna in the Pindos.
It's sheen in the sun (and in the scanner) positively shows us why it's called bronzite.
Orthopyroxene grains are on the scale of multiple cm; the bronzite pegmatite is found in a dike within mantle harzburgite.
We take lots of samples, giving us lots of excuses to go to the taverna as well.

More pretty serpentine...

This bit has great slickensides on it.
What a lovely sheen when scanned!

Blueschist at work!

This is a view of an old millstone left on the road at the village of Ambelakia.
Who ever thought of using blueschist to grind wheat? No idea if the deformation somehow aids the ability to mill things.

The entire village is paved with blueschist. The walls of the houses are made of blueschist stone. The museum houses archeologic tools made of blueschist. Who woulda thought? It's not just a wonder-rock, but a useful rock!

So, our friendly blueschist has been down subducted down deep, and exhumed back up.
This ride must have been fun, as the rock is really wonderfully deformed.
WHEEEEeeeee!
Yes, rock do enjoy deformation!

Mica in Blueschist.

The micas are gorgeous, large, undulating, and have blue tints from presumably underlying glaucophane. Well worth sampling. They seem to me quite characteristic of the blueschist, and even when the schist has been altered (and the glaucophane seems to have lost its blue-ness), I think it can be used as indicative of the formation.

Blueschisted!

This is a pretty typical look at handscale size blueschistl
Yes, it's still blue, but the crenulated micas give it a lovely undulating sheen.

It's blue, it's schist, it's Blueschist!

Blueschist really IS blue, at least at it's Greek type-section at Ambelakia south of Mt Olympos.
The blue color is, one supposes, due to the presence of glaucophane, a blue amphibole. Mostly what is apparent in the rock is micaceous. This makes it look more phyllitic than schist-istic, but possibly this is merely an alteration affect. Could be retrograde metamorphism, but let's keep things simple.

This little rock baby looked quite dull until scanning shows it lovely -- no Bob, I didn't change the colors.

Okay, so it's a common joke that petrologists play on their students -- there among all the rock seriousities that are given to students to identify, there is always the stray bit of asphault. But then, you really should be able to tell asphault from real rocks, so here it is.
Actually, it's not always an easy call. If fresh, the tar might still be gooey. Try putting a piece of the stuff in water then sniffing it to see if it smells like asphault. It this doesn't work, apply a match and see if it melts or burns. If not, your guess is as good as mine.