SEDIMENT DENSITY STRUCTURE DERIVED FROM TEXTURAL ANALYSIS OF CROSS-SECTIONAL X-RADIOGRAPHS

Two image texture analysis procedures, auto-correlation and binary run length, quantify the scales, orientation, and isotropy of density flu ctuations imaged in X-radiographs of sediment cross sections from the Arafura Sea (Australia) and Eckernforde Bay (Germany). Image texture-b ased results agree with traditional bulk methods in some cases and dis agree in others. Advantages of image-based techniques over bulk method s are nonintrusiveness of the approach and the ability to produce more detailed characterizations of the spatial variability present in sedi ment structure. The image texture-based parameterizations of density s tructure are interpreted with respect to environmental processes.