Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems
Geoscientific Instrumentation, Methods and Data Systems
GI
Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-14-193-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gi-14-193-2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Articles | Volume 14, issue 2
Research article
 | 
02 Sep 2025
Research article |  | 02 Sep 2025

A free, open-source method for automated mapping of quantitative mineralogy from energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy scans of rock thin sections

Miles M. Reed, Ken L. Ferrier, William O. Nachlas, Bil Schneider, Chloé Arson, Tingting Xu, Xianda Shen, and Nicole West

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Short summary
We constructed an easy-to-use, open-source method for mapping minerals in rock thin sections. We implemented the method within the geographical information system QGIS and the Orfeo ToolBox plugin using random forest image classification on scanning electron microscope data. We applied the method to 14 rock thin sections. Mineral abundance estimates from our method compare favorably to previously published estimates, and 96 % spatially and categorically agree with manually derived mineral maps.
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