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Accurate quantification of the modal mineralogy of rocks when image analysis is difficult

¹ Department of Mineralogy, Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK
² ISIS Facility, Rutherford Appleton Laboratory, Chilton, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0QX, UK
³ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
⁴ Bayerisches Geoinstitut, Universität Bayreuth, Bayreuth, D-95440, Germany

^* E-mail: p.schofield{at}nhm.ac.uk

The volume proportions of the mineral phases in two strongly deformed olivine-orthopyroxene rocks have been quantified by whole-pattern stripping of fixed geometry X-ray powder diffraction data. The results were compared with the phase proportions as determined by Rietveld refinement of time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction data, and were shown to be in excellent agreement. The X-ray technique not only provides a very rapid and cost-effective method of determining phase proportions, but it also circumvents several of the problems associated with obtaining this information by image analysis. Moreover, the technique is particularly advantageous in strongly textured rocks or in rocks that contain significant residual strains. As such it offers a powerful technique for analysing the mineralogical composition of fine-grained and/or deformed experimental run products, which makes it of considerable potential for monitoring in situ the progress of mineral reactions during laboratory experiments.

KEYWORDS: phase quantification, X-ray diffraction, neutron diffraction, olivine-orthopyroxene rocks

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