Electronic Material Properties - und Geowissenschaften ...

Technical Petrology
with emphasis in Low Temperature Petrology
The scientific and educational field of this 35 years young branch within the applied
geosciences is based on indispensable knowledge in magmatic, metamorphic
(greenschist facies to ultra-metamorphism) low-temperature (studies in diagenesis
and sub-greenschist facies metamorphism) and hydrothermal petrology but also in
geothermal geology and sediment petrography. On these fundamentals it is possible
to evaluate the mechanical, chemical and physical properties of rocks and the
determination for their technical use in engineering geology, in environmental
sciences, in geo-material and thermal-energy sciences. The determination of the
genetic history and evolution of rocks through time and space gives, e.g., basic
information on the study of rock and ore deposits for prospection and exploitation
interests. To understand mineralization, re-crystallisation and petrogenesis of rocks
an important effort is focussed on tectono-thermal research, tectonophysics and
structural geology (from the kilometre to nanometre scale). Furthermore, many
natural processes are catalytically controlled by deformation. A better understanding
of these processes can be recorded from deformation versus crystallisation and
deformation versus metamorphism/ heating studies in the field and by experimental
simulations. Therefore technical petrology is strongly field-oriented and linked to
mineralogy, structural geology and also to geochemistry. Technical petrology in our
department will be centred on low-temperature petrology with strong relations to
applied mineralogy (geomaterial science), applied sedimentology and geothermal
science, three other fields of principal interest at the TU Darmstadt.
Low Temperature Petrology covers a broad field of studies: - on diagenesis with
application in hydrocarbon, hydrothermal and geothermal exploration, - on clay and
carbonaceous materials related with applied organic and clay petrology studies, - on
maceral analysis of coals, - on sorption properties of carbonaceous and clay
materials, - on the determination of graphitisation nano- and microstructures
(refractory quality), - on the improvement of forward numerical geothermal, and
maturity, and basin-analysis models (studies on hydrocarbon and fluid migration) - or
on the synthesis of graphite structures and organic matter maturity related to
technical aspects, - on recognizing of soot and carbon black in filtering installations or
the thermal resistance of organic particles among other applications. It is important to
understand the chemical and physical parameters of natural systems to be able to
recognize the differences caused by anthropogenic changes.
In the low-temperature range, neoformation of mesoscopic and macroscopic phases
is very rare and the minerals to be studied have a very small grain-size. Also stable
thermodynamic conditions are scarce and metastable phases and chemical
disequilibria conditions are very common. Therefore a broad analytical spectrum
must be applied. In the FG Technical Petrology, general microscopy (MPV coal
reflection microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, transmitted light microscopy in the
Joint Research Microscopy Laboratory, installed in 2004 and supported by the
Mineralogisch Petrographisches Institut Basel, CH) and basically XRD powder and
texture studies (Clay and XRD Laboratory, installed in 2005) can be combined with
ICP-AES, TOC, AAS, AOX and gas chromatography (GC-ECD, GC-MS) in the
Organic Geo-chemical Laboratory (recently installed with thankful help by the
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