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Recovering 3D particle size distributions from 2D sections
Author(s) -
Cuzzi Jeffrey N.,
Olson Daniel M.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
meteoritics and planetary science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.09
H-Index - 100
eISSN - 1945-5100
pISSN - 1086-9379
DOI - 10.1111/maps.12812
Subject(s) - particle (ecology) , planar , particle size , simple (philosophy) , particle size distribution , statistical physics , surface (topology) , mineralogy , materials science , computational physics , physics , geometry , geology , computer science , mathematics , computer graphics (images) , paleontology , philosophy , oceanography , epistemology
We discuss different ways to convert observed, apparent particle size distributions from 2D sections (thin sections, SEM maps on planar surfaces, etc.) into true 3D particle size distributions. We give a simple, flexible, and practical method to do this; show which of these techniques gives the most faithful conversions; and provide (online) short computer codes to calculate both 2D‐3D recoveries and simulations of 2D observations by random sectioning. The most important systematic bias of 2D sectioning, from the standpoint of most chondrite studies, is an overestimate of the abundance of the larger particles. We show that fairly good recoveries can be achieved from observed size distributions containing 100–300 individual measurements of apparent particle diameter.