A METHOD OF DISTINGUISHING MINERALS FROM PORES IN SOIL THIN-SECTIONS

The accurate analysis of soil pore structures in soil thin sections de pends on achieving sufficient contrast between soil pores and minerals . The objective of this research was to develop a method that requires a minimum number of crossed polarizer images to distinguish minerals from pores in soil thin sections. Five undisturbed soil samples were t aken from each of the three soils used in the experiment. One thin sec tion was made from each sample. Images of the thin sections were captu red with a digital video camera through a microscope at X3.2 and saved for later analysis. Two crossed polarizer images at 0 and 45 degrees combined with a plane light image could distinguish more than 90% of t he minerals. The combination of three crossed polarizer images at 0, 3 0, and 60 degrees was more efficient than Ismail's method, which used six crossed polarizer images.