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.