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Creek Fire, California, 2017 Under the Microscope

Plant Fragment with Phytoliths

This is from the Creek/Sylmar fire in Los Angeles, California in 2017. This is from an environmental tapelift collected in a home near the Creek fire. It shows a plant fragment containing a number of calcium oxalate phytoliths. The phytoliths show no thermal modification. The reflected darkfield lightens some of the particle but at this exposure it still looks like there are dark patches.

Transmitted Crossed Circular Polarized Light and Reflected Darkfield Illumination

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