Description
Sodium chloride crystal nucleation and growth from evaporating brine produces one of the most geometrically perfect crystalline forms in nature — the cubic crystal system of NaCl produces crystal faces that are optically flat, crystal edges that are geometrically straight, and crystal corners that are exactly 90 degrees. At the nucleation and early growth phase captured in this image, the NaCl crystals are optically transparent and their faces act as mirrors, reflecting the environment as distorted images in the curved crystal face reflection. Made at 4:1 macro reproduction on a glass microscope slide with a controlled-temperature evaporation chamber, the image shows NaCl crystals at 0.2 to 0.5mm edge length — the transition zone between the growth phase’s transparent optical clarity and the mature crystal phase’s opaque white appearance as air inclusions are trapped at the final surface. Each crystal face reflects a different portion of the illumination setup.
