Carbonate Petrology

Dhakilallah Al-Adwani was the first of Christopher Kendall's students to assemble photomicrographs of thin sections in the carbonate teaching collection at the Department of Geology at the University of South Carolina and, aided by Rolando Benitez, created an "html" version of the exercises used in the classroom. Later using this earlier version for inspiration, Nassir Alnajii and Christopher Kendall built a more extensive Carbonate Petrology section. Here, as in the version that Dhakilallah Al-Adwani produced, the text of the outlined exercises was written by Christopher Kendall and is based on the text of the carbonate petrography exercises that were developed by Robert Folk of the University of Texas at Austin. Use the pull down menus accessed above to gain access to the exercises.

The photomicrographs cover a broad spectrum of typical carbonate rocks, including those essentially unmodified by alteration. Some photomicrographs are of chemical rocks of various compositions that are often found with carbonates.

Instructions to USC students.
If this petrography section of the USC web site is being used by students of Department of Geology at the University of South Carolina who are taking the laboratory exercises for Carbonate Petrography, then they can use the photomicrographs and the text that accompanies them to better understand the thin sections they examine in this laboratory. They should list the complete rock name according to Folk's classification, including such modifiers as may be necessary for description (e.g., sandy Milliolid biomicrite, packed poorly washed mixed biomicrite, etc.; for summary see Folk 1959, AAPG 43:1-38 and 1962, SEPM Mem. 1:62-84, for complete discussion). They should be sure to try and examine the hand specimens for some of these rocks when the hand specimen number is given on the thin section envelope. Ask the TA where these are.

Instructions to those with no access to the USC Carbonate Thin Sections.
If this carbonate petrography section of the USC web site is being used by those who have no access to the carbonate thin sections of the University of South Carolina Department of Geology, they can still use the photomicrographs and the text that accompanies them to better understand how to describe carbonate thin sections. Using these photomicrographs, where it is reasonable to do so, they should try list the complete rock name of the carbonate involved. They should apply either:

• Folk's classification, including such modifiers as may be necessary for description (e.g., sandy Milliolid biomicrite, packed poorly washed mixed biomicrite, etc.; for summary see Folk 1959, and 1962, for completer discussion.
• or Dunham's classification, including such modifiers as may be necessary for description (Milliolid packstone, etc; for summary see Dunham 1962, for completer discussion.