Quantification of SEM microtextures useful in sedimentary environmental discrimination

Scanning electron microscopic imagery is often used to identify and discrim inate among environments of sedimentation with the main aim of identifying individual microfeatures, or suites of microtextures, that are considered i ndicative of a particular depositional environment or geologic process. Bec ause few microtextures are considered to represent a single geologic proces s it is necessary to analyze a large number of quartz sands and other miner alic grains with the objective of determining the frequency of occurrence o f a range of microtextures within a distinct sample suite. Using percent fr equency of occurrence of different microtextures from suites of fluvial, gl aciofluvial and glacial sands from sites in Estonia and Latvia, we invoked statistical comparison of different sample suites using Euclidean distances . These provide a quantitative means of measuring the differences among dif ferent sediments and processes that formed them and also a quantification t ool useful in assessing microtextures as a recorder of sedimentary environm ents.