Andrea Oppicelli's Photo Gallery

GP5-0V9Limestone

Porto Venere, La Spezia Province, Liguria, Italy

Dimensions: 13 cm x 12 cm

Portoro limestone aka Portovenere marble.
Cut and polished sample

West side of the quarry

Italcementi quarry, Cravasco, Campomorone, Genoa, Liguria, Italy

quarry dug on the slopes of Mount Carmel

Simien Mountains

Simien Mountains Volcanic Field, North Gondar Zone, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

Photo of the Simien Mountains from the 1930s

KCF-E9NSandstone

Morbello, Alessandria Province, Piedmont, Italy

Dimensions: 16 cm x 9 cm x 1 cm
Field of View: 17 cm

Sandstone with plant fossils

M8J-YYVIce H₂O

Vara Valley, La Spezia Province, Liguria, Italy

Field of View: 8 mm

Ice crystals on a leaf

YJ4-3V7Pyrite FeS₂ , Hematite Fe₂O₃

Valle Giove stope, Rio Mine, Rio Marina, Rio, Livorno Province, Tuscany, Italy

Field of View: 40 mm

5FH-JCMSerpentine schist

Proratado Mountain, Piani di Praglia, Ceranesi, Genoa, Liguria, Italy

Field of View: 6 cm

Cut and polished serpentine schist with black aggregates of magnetite

U4Q-FXTPillow lava

Monte Porcile Mine, Maissana, La Spezia Province, Liguria, Italy

Field of View: 1 m

Pillow lava represent lavas extruded in a submarine or underwater environment and which cool rapidly.
This illustrated represents one of them formed in the fracture (mid-ocean ridge) of the ancient Ligurian-Piedmontese ocean known as "ruga del Bracco" (Bracco ridge)
The composition is mainly basaltic.
The cooling of the rock in contact with the water starts from the periphery and thus reaches the center; in the gradual cooling of the basaltic mass, radial fractures and concentric fractures are formed. The center, where the cooling is less, has a more crystalline structure.
Therefore, based on the cooling rate, the crust will be glassy but devoid of true crystals, an intermediate area where the crystals will be skeletal and a central area where the crystals will be more well formed.
In the contact area between the pillows, the presence of fragments of magma, of gases released by the degassing of the magma in contact with water and sediments may give rise to the formation of mineralizations, including crystalline ones of various types (calcite, epidote, etc.).
The rounded vesicles that form the vitreous part (hyaloclastitis) of the flow can be of various sizes, from a few millimeters to a few centimeters; their position indicates the degassing zone in the upper part of the underwater flow.

YHG-Y4UChert

Monte Porcile Mine, Maissana, La Spezia Province, Liguria, Italy

Field of View: 20 cm

Chert with particular and some regular undulated type of cleavage

Quarries

Monte Gazzo quarries, Sestri Ponente, Genoa, Genoa, Liguria, Italy

Panoramic view of the quarries on the East side of Mount Gazzo, almost entirely made up of dolostones and dolomitic limestones