| Id | Identification Type | Name | Description | Distinguishing Features | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 117 | Contaminant | Bubble | Transparent colorless with heavy black outline. Nonpleochroic, isotropic. Bubbles in optical cement are typically circular but can be any shape when filling voids in biological remains. Very high relief, and may be out of plane of focus of other materials due to larger size. May occur in any slide. Can be partially avoided by keeping bottle of mounting medium upside down when not in use, and mounting several slides at a time so that bubbles are only present in first one or two. | High-relief
spherical |
circular dark high-relief transparent contaminant |
| 118 | Contaminant | Toothpick | Small fibers from wooden toothpicks used to disperse sediment on smear slides can be confused with muscovite. Transparent, colorless. Strong second-order birefringence. Shredded or stringy texture common. Low relief. Cellular structure may be visible and can be used to distinguish toothpick from muscovite | Shredded
Stringy Colorless High-birefringence Cellular-structure |
contaminant |
| 124 | Contaminant | Fiber | contaminant | ||
| 143 | Contaminant | Hair | contaminant | ||
| 144 | Contaminant | Cigarette Ash | contaminant | ||
| 145 | Contaminant | Floral Foam | contaminant | ||
| 146 | Contaminant | Kimwipe | contaminant | ||
| 147 | Contaminant | Lab Dust | contaminant | ||
| 148 | Contaminant | Mold | contaminant | ||
| 149 | Contaminant | Polycarb Large Fragment | contaminant | ||
| 150 | Contaminant | Polycarb Small Fragment | contaminant | ||
| 151 | Contaminant | Slide Glass | Slide manufacturing and handling can sometimes produce fine shards that mimic volcanic glass. Pre-cleaning of new slides prior to smear slide preparation can help minimize encounters with this confusing artifact. | isotropic conchoidal-fracture | contaminant |
| 152 | Contaminant | Zorbitrol | Zorbitrol is a hydrophilic sodium acrylate polymer sometimes used to physically stabilize the surface of sediment cores. | contaminant | |
| 180 | Contaminant | Backer rod | contaminant |
116 Church Street NE, Minneapolis, MN 55455
P: 612-626-7889