PETROGRAPHIC ASSESSMENT WITH TRANSMITED AND REFLECTED LIGHT MICROSCOPY

Identification of minerals and textures and classification of rocks with polarised light microscopy

The study and analysis of thin sections and metallographic specimens using transmitted polarised and reflected light microscopy for opaque phases is one of the main techniques used for the petrographic assessment of samples and is essential in areas such as mining and oil exploration.

Microscopic photography and digital imaging

Mineralogical and petrographic reports include microscopic photographs representative of all the detectable minerals and textures. Morphometry software and imaging are also available specifically for microscopy, enabling the digital processing of images to measure distances, areas, perimeters and angles and to conduct automatic matrices and coarse-grain quantification and the automatic counting of grains.

Quantification of mineral phases: modal counting

escOrsa has an automated stage to perform counts on thin sections. This stage sweeps the thin section, following a regular grid pattern to determine the exact proportion of minerals present in the rock.