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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 that contains calcium oxalate phytoliths that are nearly invisable with this illumination. If they had been thermally modified they would be highly light scattering and appear bright.

Reflected Darkfield Illumination

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