SEM Petrology Atlas

In the last few years, our need to answer complex exploration and production questions has led to the use of increasingly sophisticated analytical equipment. Today, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) systems are being successfully applied to a wide variety of petroleum exploration and production problems. These include: (1) identification of plant and animal mlcrotossils. (for age and environmental interpretations); (2) evaluation of reservoir quality through diagenetic studies; and (3) the investigation of production problems, such as the effect of clay minerals, steamfloods, and chemical treatments on drilling equipment, gravel packs, and the reservoir itself. Although the use and application of the SEM has steadily increased, the amount of reference material available to aid in SEM mineral identification has severely lagged behind. Some textbooks are available which give excellent descriptions of basic SEM theory (Postek et ai, 1980; Wells, 1974), but these books are not written specifically for geologists, so are limited as a geologically oriented SEM work. Papers dealing with the identification of authigenic clay minerals (Wilson and Pittman, 1977) and zeolites (Mumpton and Ormsby, 1976) are an excellent beginning, but no comprehensive guide to mineral identification by SEM has been available. The purpose of this atlas is to provide SEM users (geologists, engineers, geochemists, and technicians) with a beginning guide to SEM mineral identification and interpretation. This atlas by no means contains a complete representation of all common minerals, but rather includes a wide variety of minerals commonly found in clastic reservoir rocks.