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Three-dimensional imaging of inhomogeneous lithologies using X-ray computed tomography: characterization of drill core from the Borrowdale Volcanic Group

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2018

D. L. Engelberg ,
R. A. D. Pattrick ,
C. Wilson ,
R. McCrae  and
P. J. Withers
D. L. Engelberg*
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Radwaste & Decommissioning, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
R. A. D. Pattrick
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Radwaste & Decommissioning, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
C. Wilson
Affiliation:
School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
R. McCrae
Affiliation:
Nuclear FiRST CDT, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
P. J. Withers
Affiliation:
Henry Moseley X-ray Imaging Facility (HMXIF), School of Materials, Manchester M13 9PL, UK
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
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Abstract

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X-ray computed tomography augmented by elemental microanalysis has been used to characterize two drill cores from the Borrowdale Volcanic Group, west Cumbria, UK. Information about the three-dimensional (3D) distribution of mineral phases was obtained non-destructively, and regionsof interest were extracted for thin sectioning and elemental analysis. This revealed the presence of pyrite and other iron- and iron-titanium-bearing minerals. X-ray computed tomography is a very useful tool for 3D visualization, but the limitations of the tomography system used made it difficultto distinguish between regions with similar compositions, such as the different layers within the calcite veins. Methods by which these limitations might be overcome are briefly discussed.

Keywords

X-ray computed tomographyBorrowdale Volcanic Group (BVG)drill coremineralization
Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical Magazine , Volume 76 , Issue 8 , December 2012 , pp. 2931 - 2938
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
© [2012] The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2012

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