A method for making thin sections and polished slubs of non-cohesive fault rocks containing swelling clay minerals

Abstract

To make thin sections or polished slubs of the brittle fault rocks like fault gouge and fault breccia without volume loss, is pretty difficult because of its fragili-ty and softness. In general, the reinforcement by resin is performed in such specimens, but it's not so effective for the brittle fault rocks that contain swelling clay minerals. Additionally, detailed and through instructions about how to make thin sections of these rocks have not been published. Therefore, we introduce the grinding method which does not use the water for brittle fault rocks and altered rocks containing swelling clay minerals. With this method, we can make the thin sections, polished slubs, even sections specially prepared for SEM, TEM, EPMA analyses of noncohesive fault rocks containing swelling clay minerals without volume loss.