Magma Arta: rocks under the microscope

Study of a unique rock collection -- and its astonishingly beautiful microscopic crystal structures -- could change our understanding of how the Earth works. The collection of igneous rocks, housed at the University of Cambridge’s Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, dates back to at least the early 1800s and contains around 160,000 rocks and about 250,000 slide-mounted rock slices that are thin enough to let light through. A research team in Cambridge is using the collection to provide new information of the composition of the rocks, in a project funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. Because the rocks were made deep within the Earth, and then spewed out of volcanoes, they can be used to further understanding of the Earth’s mantle structure. Studying these deep layers is crucial to understanding the inner workings of our planet and the driving forces behind the movement of tectonic plates. More information: