Quantitative mineral abundance measurements
Backscattered electron image of a polished schist sample and corresponding mineral abundance measurements. The green areas are muscovite and the pale blue areas are biotite.
A quantitative measurement of mineral abundance can be produced by 'point counting' minerals within an area of polished rock sample. This can be done using either:
- a backscattered electron image
- X-ray maps
See an example using the backscattered electron image method