Welcome To CRAIN'S PETROPHYSICAL HANDBOOK

Handbook Index Petrophysical Training About the Author Terms of

Use Contact Us Search

THIS IS A SHAREWARE SITE. BE FAIR, PAY YOUR SHARE HERE

If you have NOT PAID your Shareware
Fee recently, please do so HERE.
Don't wait. Don't rely on others to
subsidize your usage. Become a "CPH
Gold Menber" NOW.
Your personal support is vital to keep
Crain's Petrophysical Handbook online.
If you have paid within the last couple
of years, THANK YOU !

THIN SECTION
Site Navigation Quick Links
PETROGRAPHY

 Ter THIN THIS PAGE

ms
Of SECTION Thin Section Basics
Us BASICS Thin Section Results
e/ Petrographical
Dis analyses is an THIS CHAPTER
cla essential service Water Chemistry Analysis
im providing
er Core Analysis Basics
estimates of
 Pa pore size Coring and Core Porosity
y distribution, Core Saturation
Sh grain size, Core Permeability
are sorting, porosity, Wettability
wa and mineral Publication History: This article is Capillary Pressure
re abundances, based on "Crain's Data Acquisition" byRelative Permeability
Fe fabric, rock E. R. (Ross) Crain, P.Eng., first published
e Rock Compressibility
classification, in 2010. This webpage version is the Electrical Properties A,M,N
 Ha porosity copyrighted intellectual property of theX-Ray Diffraction (XRD)
nd author.
varieties and
bo X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF)
abundances.
ok Infra-Red (FTIR)
Ind Do not copy or distribute in any Thin Section Petrography
Results include
a determination form without explicit permission. Averaging Core Data
ex
/
Sit of shale volume, Core Analysis Lab Manual
e shale distribution, porosity varieties and abundances with a
Ma discussion of diagenesis, diagenetic sequence, porosity
p origins and development, controls on porosity and
 Fre permeability. Point count data is presented in tabular form
e with colour photomicrographs accompanied by detailed
Sp descriptions.
 rea
ds Core or chip
he samples are
et cleaned in a
Do vapor phase
wn bath in an
loa attempt to
ds remove solvable
 Fre excess residual
e hydrocarbon.
Pu
The samples are
bli
then
cat
ion
impregnated
s with blue epoxy
 Te to identify porosity and preserve textures, polished and
sti mounted onto a glass slide. The samples are then ground
mo down to a thickness of 30 microns and stained with a
nia combined carbonate stain of Alizarin Red-S (for calcite) and
ls potassium ferricyanide (for
 Ab ferroan carbonate).
out
Th Thin section microphotograph, blue colour is porosity,
e other colours are different minerals
Au
tho
r
Finally, a second glass slide is glued on the polished
Petrophy surfaces. The prepared thin sections are examined
sical petrographically. Individual minerals are identified by their
Training stained colour and crystal structure (if visible).
Thin section "visual porosity" is called effective porosity in
 We
bin petrographic reports. It is usually less than effective
ar porosity from logs or core analysis because it does not
Da include microporosity inside grains or rock fragments.
tes Petrographic reports sometimes refer to core porosity as
 Co "total porosity". This is confusing, as the common usage of
urs "total porosity" is the sum of effective porosity (core
e porosity or log analysis porosity) plus clay bound water.
Da Consider the context.
tes
 Or The petrographic data summary, including framework
der mineralogy, diagenetic minerals and cements, textures,
AV grain size range, and average porosity and permeability, is
Co provided in tabular form.
urs
es
 Or
der
Vid
eo
Co
urs
es
 Or
der
Re
fer
en
 ce
Ma
nu
als
 Be
co
me
An
As
so
cia
te
Ins
tru
cto
r

Petrophy
sical
Consulti
ng

 Co
ns
ulti
Grain size distribution histogram - tabular data for each
ng
Se sample will also be supplied
rvi
ce Macro fracturing are usually visible with blue epoxy. To look
s for possible micro fractures, a second set of thin sections
 Cli are made from the same samples. These are injected with
ent fluorescence Rhodamine-B red epoxy. These samples are
Lis examined and photographed under ultra-violet (UV) light.
t
 Pr More detailed images may be made by scanning electron
oje microscopy (SEM) to assess pore geometry and grain
ct texture.
Lis
t
THIN SECTION EXAMPLES
Example of a complete petrographic point count analysis on
four thin section samples. Note that the same mineral can
occur in several catagories. For comparison of log analysis
results to petrographic data, the sum of each mineral
quantity must be found. For example, quartz (+ chert) adds
up to 54% by weight and dolomite is 21% in Sample #1.
Visual porosity (reported elsewhere on the report summary
was only 0.40% compared to core porosity of 8.4 %. This
indicates that most of the porosity is microporosity, not
 visible in microphotographs.

XRD data for the same 4 samples. Note that Sample #1

shows 50% quartz (vs 51% on TS) and 31% dolomite (vs 21%
on TS). Total clay is 5% vs 10% on thin section report. These
differences are typical of the possible variations in values,
so we don't get too excited about an exact match with log
analysis results. The Clay Fraction numbers break down the
minerals in the <3 micron float sample and shows that only
27% of the clay sized particles are clay minerals, the balance
being non-clay minerals.

Page Views 4100 Since 01 Jan 2015

Copyright 1978 - 2018 E. R. Crain, P.Eng. All Rights Reserved