Automated Analysis of Sections of Geological Materials

Historically, the analysis of polished rock samples has been primarily carried out using cross-polarised optical microscopy – an often time-consuming and laborious technique which relies on the user’s skill to identify each phase. This may be done with a point counting sampling approach with the results extrapolated to the whole sample. While this approach can be very powerful when performed by an experienced mineralogist/petrologist, no direct measurement is made of the chemistry of the various phases or their morphology.

AZtecFeature, used in conjunction with large area X-Max^N SDDs can automate this process enabling complex mineralogies to be characterised quickly and accurately.

By downloading this application note you will see:

• How large area mapping offers a significant improvement on this situation
• How the characterisation of samples of this nature can be further automated and the speed can be significantly increased using a feature analysis approach

*Please note, this application note refers to X-Max. This has since been upgraded to Ultim Max.

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