infocus #33 March 2014 Petrified Universe

Spacek engages the reader with fantastic landscapes of the deep universe captured in the stone of his polished agates collection.

DOI: 10.22443/rms.inf.1.107

Some time ago the article on gemstone inclusions published in this magazine (Koivula 2007), inspired me to explore under the microscope several polished agates from my small collection. The result surprised me very much. Apart from areas very poor in attractive structures, I found other areas which resembled photographs from the Hubble Space Telescope. Fantastic landscapes of the deep Universe captured in the stone emerged from the eyepiece. Some of them seemed like clouds of hot gas and close or distant galaxies (Figs. 1 - 4 ), others resembled deep-sea or superficial volcanic eruptions (Figs. 5 - 10) or falling asteroids (Figs. 11, 12). It was a wonderful revelation.
If you have access to polished agates, do not hesitate to explore them. Begin with a magnifying glass and if you find interesting areas, examine them under a higher power of your microscope.

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