5. Conclusions
This study investigates the areal heterogeneity of mineral compositions,
pore structure, and organic matter composition on two sub-dm-sized
samples from an outcrop of Eagle Ford Shale. Even though it is not
visible to the naked eye, the spatial heterogeneity can be observed
across the whole sample area with the help of μ-XRF and (U)SAXS. Based
on the relationship between compositions and measured porosity from
(U)SAXS, the porosity at other non-measured locations can be
extrapolated; and the sedimentary-textural maps can be associated with
calculated porosity. The capabilities of quickly and non-destructively
analyzing dm-scaled samples and providing good resolutions of μm to cm
of those two techniques for areal heterogeneity studies open up a wide
range of potential applications to many geological fields such as
mineralogy, petrology, sedimentary geology, environmental geology,
energy geology, and astrogeology.