I'd like to share a figure from next published paper. This is a mineral classification map that I
made for a section of the meteorite Northwest Africa 11304, a brecciated Rumuruti-type chondrite (R3-6). This data provided valuable petrographic and geochemical context for our investigation of asteroid metamorphism and incipient melting. I like to think it's rather pretty, too. I completed this work as part of my dissertation and a NASA Doctoral Fellowship. We're now in the final stages of peer review, and I would love to hear your thoughts!
I've heard some interest in how to make these classification maps. For this map, I used ENVI software to stack individual element maps and manually set classification parameters, but there are some great open-source software packages that can do the job (arguably better). I highly recommend XMapTools for constructing mineral classification maps. Their AI-assisted classification algorithms take a lot of the brute force and guesswork out of the equation. If there's interest, I could record a brief tutorial on how I use XMapTools to make mineral classification maps and upgrade semi-quantitative maps to quantitative data. It's an incredibly powerful tool that I think will reshape how many of use do petrography and petrology in the future.
Thanks for reading!
Sam
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