- Title
- A comparison of grain-size analysis methods for sand-dominated fluvial sediments
- Creator
- Cheetham, Michael D.; Keene, Annabelle F.; Bush, Richard T.; Sullivan, Leigh A.; Erskine, Wayne D.
- Relation
- Sedimentology Vol. 55, Issue 6, p. 1905-1913
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-3091.2008.00972.x
- Publisher
- Wiley-Blackwell Publishing
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2008
- Description
- Grain-size distribution is a fundamental tool for interpreting sedimentary units within depositional systems. The techniques assessed in this study are commonly used to determine grain-size distributions for sand-dominated sediments. However, the degree of consistency and differences in interpretation when using a combination of grain-size methods have not yet been assessed systematically for sand-dominated fluvial sediments. Results obtained from laser diffraction, X-ray attenuation and scanning electron microscopy grain-size analysis techniques were compared with those obtained from the traditional sieve/hydrometer method. Scanning electron microscopy was shown to provide an inaccurate quantitative analysis of grain-size distributions because of difficulties in obtaining representative samples for examination. The X-ray attenuation method is unsuitable for sand-dominated sediments because of its upper size range of only 300 μm. The consistently strong correlation between the laser diffraction results and the sieve/hydrometer results shows that these methods are comparable for sand-dominated fluvial sediments. Provided that sample preparation is consistent, the latter two methods can be used together within a study of such sediments while maintaining a high degree of accuracy. These results indicate that data for sand-dominated fluvial sediments gained from the long-established sieve/hydrometer method can be compared with confidence to those obtained by modern studies using laser diffraction techniques.
- Subject
- hydrometer; laser diffraction; scanning electron microscopy; sieve; X-ray attenuation
- Identifier
- uon:5278
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/43151
- Identifier
- ISSN:0037-0746
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