Fig. 2

Photomicrographs from polished thin sections of representative serpentinite rocks from SEP. Rock clasts from within the soil collected at 10 cm depth from the Mountain LN (a) and Lowland MAN (b) sites, rocks from outcrops close to Mountain CEI (c) and Lowland BES (d) site; under plane-polarized light (left) and crossed polars (right). e Elemental distribution determined on a polished thin section of a serpentinite clast from 10 cm depth (a), defined by EPMA (rotated 90° counterclockwise). Count intensity color scale (right of each micrograph) decreases downwards. Elemental analysis of b, c and d are shown in Additional file 1: Figs. S4, S5 and S6, respectively. Cpx: clinopyroxene, Fo: forsterite, Ol: olivine, Opx: orthopyroxene, Srp: serpentine, Spl: spinel