Thin Sections: The Past Serving The Future

A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Crystallography and Physical Chemistry of Minerals & Nanominerals".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2025 | Viewed by 1990

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department de Geologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici C, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain
Interests: archaeometry; crystallography; magnetism; petrography; physical–chemical characterization; X-ray microdiffraction; Raman microscopy (RM); magnetic nanoparticles; 3D-printing
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department de Geologia, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), Edifici C, 08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès, Catalonia, Spain
Interests: archaeometry; petrography of archaeological materials; pottery; glazes; marbles; X-ray microdiffraction; Raman microscopy (RM)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The introduction of thin-section (~30 μm in thickness) samples to mineralogical studies occurred alongside the development of the petrographic microscope in the mid-19th century. In optical mineralogy and petrography, the use of the polished thin sections is very common within the study of a wide variety of materials, including rocks, minerals, soils, slag, mudbrick, and clays. However, in some scientific circles both thin sections and the petrographic microscope are sometimes perceived as archaic tools, not yet fully obsolete but far from cutting-edge science.

Tools of the past? Nothing could be further from the truth. Over the last ten years, the use of thin sections in combination with hyper-spectral elemental, molecular, and structural methods has revealed new ways of examining samples. The capabilities of these techniques can be significantly improved when combined with thin sections. The use of thin-section enhances data quality with easier correlations between data produced by different techniques and improved control over measured sample regions. Other sample supports such as cross-sections are easier to produce, but it is often difficult to see what is being measured.

Originating in the early to mid-19th century and specifically used to investigate rocks in the field of geosciences, thin sections are a sample support that can be applied in many other fields, artistic (stone, ceramics, wood, pigments), construction (concrete, mortar), and technological among others. In this Special Issue, we will collate papers that demonstrate, in a wide variety of contexts and domains, the versatility and usefulness of thin sections in characterizing natural or artificial crystalline materials. We are particularly interested in combinations of this sample support with local probe analytical equipment.

Dr. Lluís Casas
Dr. Roberta Di Febo
Guest Editors

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

26 pages, 7883 KiB  
Article
Technosol Micromorphology Reveals the Early Pedogenesis of Abandoned Rare Earth Element Mining Sites Undergoing Reclamation in South China
by Françoise Watteau, Jean Louis Morel, Chang Liu, Yetao Tang and Hermine Huot
Minerals 2025, 15(5), 514; https://doi.org/10.3390/min15050514 - 14 May 2025
Viewed by 204
Abstract
The process of anthropogenic pedogenesis has necessarily become an important aspect of the study of today’s soils. The sustainable reclamation or remediation of soils degraded by industrial or mining activities is currently of great interest worldwide. In this field, the study of thin [...] Read more.
The process of anthropogenic pedogenesis has necessarily become an important aspect of the study of today’s soils. The sustainable reclamation or remediation of soils degraded by industrial or mining activities is currently of great interest worldwide. In this field, the study of thin soil sections can provide relevant answers, particularly to questions concerning the evolution of these soils under the impact of reclamation practices. Here, we describe an experiment to reclaim former rare earth element mining sites in China using organic soil amendments and plantations of a local fiber plant, Boehmeria nivea. Two years after the start of the experiment, a study of soil structure, considered as an indicator of soil biofunctioning, was carried out on the different plots, supplemented by monitoring of physico-chemical properties. Morphological (light microscopy) and analytical (SEM-EDX, µ-XRF) characterization of thin sections allowed us to pinpoint some pedological processes as aggregation with particular reference to the contribution of biological factors and mineral species, highlighting the impact of the practices implemented. Using a soil micromorphology approach enabled us to track the rapid evolution of the early stages of pedogenesis of these Technosols and to provide insight into the potential for reclamation of these mined sites in the future. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Thin Sections: The Past Serving The Future)
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