Petrography

About: Petrography is a(n) research topic. Over the lifetime, 7449 publication(s) have been published within this topic receiving 102018 citation(s).

Geochemical classification of terrigenous sands and shales from core or log data

Abstract: A means of relating geochemical concentrations to existing sandstone classification schemes is based on three chemical parameters: the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio, the Fe2O3/K2O ratio, and the Ca content. In terrigenous sands and shales, the SiO2/Al2O3 ratio separates Si-rich quartzarenites from Al-rich shales, with other sand types showing intermediate values. The ratio of total iron (as Fe2O3) to K2O separates lithic sands (litharenites and sublitharenites) from feldspathic sands (arkoses and subarkoses). In addition, very high Fe2O3/K2O ratios indicate Fe-rich shales (e.g., pyritic, sideritic, hematitic) or Fe-rich sands (e.g., gl uconitic) depending on the silica/alumina ratio. The Ca content is used to differentiate noncalcareous from calcareous sandstones and shales and to separate siliciclastic from carbonate rocks. Sandstones are classified the same by this scheme as by petrographic analysis about 84% of the time, and shales are effectively discriminated from sandstones. The requisite input data can be accurately supplied by geochemical well-logging measurements, enabling unbiased sandstone classification to be displayed on a continuous basis with depth.

A color guide to the petrography of carbonate rocks

Abstract: This volume expands and improves the AAPG 1978 classic, A Color Illustrated Guide to Carbonate Rock Constituents, Textures, Cements, and Porosities(AAPG Memoir 27). Carbonate petrography can be quite complicated. Changing assemblages of organisms through time, coupled with the randomness of thin-section cuts through complex shell forms, add to the difficulty of identifying skeletal grains. Furthermore, because many primary carbonate grains are composed of unstable minerals (especially aragonite and high-Mg calcite), diagenetic alteration commonly is quite extensive in carbonate rocks. The variability of inorganic and biogenic carbonate mineralogy through time, however, complicates prediction of patterns of diagenetic alteration. This book is designed to help deal with such challenges. It includes a wide variety of examples of commonly encountered skeletal and nonskeletal grains, cements, fabrics, and porosity types. It includes extensive new tables of age distributions, mineralogy, morphologic characteristics, environmental implications and keys to grain identification. It also encompasses a number of noncarbonate grains, that occur as accessory minerals in carbonate rocks or that may provide important biostratigraphic or paleoenvironmental information in carbonate strata. With this guide, students and other workers with little formal petrographic training should be able to examine thin sections or acetate peels under the microscope and interpret the main rock constituents and their depositional and diagenetic history.

Correlation of mineralogical and textural characteristics with engineering properties of selected granitic rocks from Turkey

Abstract: Granitic rocks show a variety of engineering properties that may affect quarrying operations, tunneling, mining, slope stability and the use of rock as a construction material. The physical and mechanical properties are a function of the mineralogical and textural characteristics of the rock. The purpose of this study is to apply correlation analysis to investigate the relationships between petrographical and engineering properties of granitic rocks. A variety of granitic rock samples from different parts of Turkey were subjected to petrographic studies. The same samples were then tested to determine specific gravity, dry and saturated unit weight, water absorption, effective and total porosity, sonic velocity, Schmidt hardness, point load strength index, uniaxial compressive strength, tensile strength and modulus of elasticity. The relationships between these properties and the petrographical characteristics are described by simple regression analyses. The study revealed that the influence of the textural characteristics on the engineering properties appears to be more important than the mineralogy. It also determined that the types of contacts, grain (mineral) shape and size significantly influence the engineering properties of the granitic rocks.

Fluid inclusion petrography

Abstract: A procedure of fluid inclusion studies is proposed with emphasis on the criteria of selecting fluid inclusions for detailed (microthermometry and spectroscopic) analysis. An overview of descriptive and genetic classifications of fluid inclusions in single crystals and in massive rocks is given with the intention of further differentiating the commonly used terms ‘primary’ and ‘secondary’ fluid inclusions. Some principles of fluid inclusion modification are explained. Cathodoluminescence (CL) studies of quartz with the optical high-power CL-microscope and the electron microprobe provided with a CL detector are an important help in ‘fluid petrography’. CL textures are subdivided in primary, growth textures and a wide variety of secondary microtextures, which are in part induced by fluid inclusions. The latter is grouped in textures indicative of local lower crystal order (increasing defect structures) and microtextures indicative of local quartz healing (reduction of the defect structures). Microtextures showing the genetic relationship between fluid inclusions and the host mineral provide information about the possible post-entrapment changes of fluid inclusions and therewith testify their geological relevance.

Microsampling and Isotopic Analysis of Igneous Rocks: Implications for the Study of Magmatic Systems

Abstract: Isotopic fingerprinting has long been used to trace magmatic processes and the components that contribute to magmas. Recent technological improvements have provided an opportunity to analyze isotopic compositions on the scale of individual crystals, and consequently to integrate isotopic and geochemical tracing with textural and petrographic observations. It has now become clear that mineral phases are commonly not in isotopic equilibrium with their host glass/groundmass. Isotopic ratios recorded from core to rim of a mineral grain reflect the progressive changes in the magma composition from which the mineral crystallized. The sense of these changes and the relationship between isotopic composition and petrographic features, such as dissolution surfaces, can be used to constrain magma evolution pathways involving open system processes such as magma mixing, contamination and recharge.