Using multimodal X-ray computed tomography to advance 3D petrography : a non-destructive investigation of olivine inside a carbonaceous chondrite
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Pankhurst, Matthew J. and Oddershede, Jette and Jones, Rhian H. and Thorley, Daniel M. and Barbee, Olivia A. and Vo, Nghia T. and Dobson, Katherine J. and Bodey, Andrew and Eastwood, David (2025) Using multimodal X-ray computed tomography to advance 3D petrography : a non-destructive investigation of olivine inside a carbonaceous chondrite. American Mineralogist, 110 (12). pp. 1886-1897. ISSN 0003-004X (https://doi.org/10.2138/am-2023-9213)
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Abstract
Rocks form in three dimensions through time and studying them provides information from inside dynamic systems we cannot otherwise observe. Yet how we typically access the interior of the rocks themselves to gain that information may limit our understanding and influence how we reconstruct the processes that formed them. Here, we demonstrate combined non-destructive 3D X-ray imaging techniques that produce quantitative densitometric and crystallographic maps of entire individual grains inside a rock. Olivine grains throughout a sample of the carbonaceous chondrite Northwest Africa (NWA) 11346 were each characterized by size, shape, composition, zoning intensity, and crystallographic orientation. The addition of 3D crystallographic mapping to calibrated 3D densitometric analysis—used to calculate chemical composition—demonstrates a fully non-destructive petrographic method and provides unique insight. For instance, in our case, using crystallographic data to delineate individual grains and then measuring the 3D size, shape, and composition of each distinguishes variably reset relict grains from those later crystallized after a melting event. Intersection in a 2D slice could not have led to this interpretation because the integration of three-dimensional size, rounding, composition, location, and crystallographic orientation measured from each grain forms the key patterns. Multimodal laboratory X-ray imaging has strong potential to advance 3D petrography.
ORCID iDs
Pankhurst, Matthew J., Oddershede, Jette, Jones, Rhian H., Thorley, Daniel M., Barbee, Olivia A., Vo, Nghia T., Dobson, Katherine J.
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2272-626X, Bodey, Andrew and Eastwood, David;
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Item type: Article ID code: 94885 Dates: DateEvent17 December 2025Published4 December 2025Published Online5 April 2025Accepted2 October 2023SubmittedSubjects: Science > Geology Department: Faculty of Engineering > Civil and Environmental Engineering Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 05 Dec 2025 09:54 Last modified: 11 Jan 2026 08:11 URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/94885