Continuous centimetric scale measurements of different physical
properties of marine sediment and rock samples are at the base of the
most of geological and paleoenvironmental studies.
They provide the basis for stratigraphy and the correlation between
sediment cores, preliminary observation of the lithology, a continuous
data acquisition for time series analysis and a tool for determination
of the best subsampling strategy.
The Core Logging LAB is equipped with Geotek® Multi-Sensor Core Logger
(MSCL) and X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) technology, which sets out to
characterize geological cores in more detail but, crucially, also
non-destructively. These datasets are a perfect accompaniment to a
geological coring campaign or research cruise. They produce a detailed
archive of the physical and geochemical properties of all core material,
which can be referred to at a later date, used to guide destructive
sampling and, most importantly, used to answer a range of scientific
questions. The ability of MSCL systems to acquire a wealth of
information on the physical properties of geological cores means that
almost anyone who is interested in the analysis of geological materials
would benefit from the use of an MSCL.
The benefits to both the scientific community and industry have been
documented several times over the years for example by Rothwell (2006)
and Vatandoost et al. (2008). These papers, including some of the older
publications (e.g. Schultheiss and Weaver, 1992; or Gunn and Best,
1998), describe the benefits of continuous data curves of physical data
enabling scientists to extract additional value from their core samples,
or even enabling the discovery of the unknown. The MSCL data provide a
level of quantification of sediment properties at a resolution that
otherwise would be unachievable without expensive labour costs and
destructive point sub-sampling.
Furthermore, the Core Logging LAB is equipped with the Geotek’s high
performance Geoscan V camera to produce images of up to 1000 pixels per
cm over the full core width. The system is capable of acquiring images
from split or slabbed sediment/rock core, or whole round cores where
multiple photographs at different angles can then be concatenated to
produce a circumferential image. Linescan cameras collect single lines
of data sequentially downcore, and are far superior to conventional area
cameras as they do not suffer from uneven lighting, spherical
distortion, montage or “stitching” effects. As a result the entire image
is suitable for calibrated sub-millimetre image analyses. The Core
Imaging System produces images in tagged image file format (TIFF) files
that can be used in many other proprietary software packages.
