Can Geological Engineering Microscopy Help Build Better Society?

The progressive introduction of geological engineering microscopy has allowed the union of microscopy with the interaction of the Science of Geology with the Geotechnical sections of Civil Engineering. Since this branch of engineering is related to the utilization, management, and exploration of the materials from the earth’s crust, it is important to make use of the imaging abilities of the microscope to extract more reliable and better image quality.

Geological engineering mostly apply the principles of combined engineering and earth sciences to obtain and discover energies connected to the earth such as coal surfaces, metal resources, mineral wealth, natural gas, and oil. And applying the engineering disciplines, such as in Civil Engineering, geological engineers aid in planning the blueprint of the foundations of key constructions for different types of weights and other processes needed to protect the environment.

Since geological engineers play major role in the study of the relation between engineering disciplines and geological sciences and are involved in planning, construction, maintenance, operation, and design of the projects, it is important that they use reliable devices that will help them obtain useful information regarding the earth’s resources.

And to aid them in developing such studies, geological engineers make use of polarizing light microscope. Why such type of microscope? This is because polarizing light microscopes are designed to take pictures of and examine the specimens that are observable as a result of their “optically anisotropic character,” which means that the physical properties of the minerals or any other materials that are in crystalline form will differ if quantified and assessed in different directions.

Anisotropic materials contain two or three refractive indices. This means that these materials can either reflect or refract light depending on the “vibration direction of the light.

The Science of Polarizing Light Microscope and Anisotropic Materials

Light microscope has long been considered as one of the most important research tool in the field of biology and other scientific progress. Since its primary component is illumination coming from a light source to identify miniature objects, it is important that the visible light must be in its proper form.

In the case of geological engineering microscopy, the light to be used should be polarized in order to analyze the thin sections of the minerals and slides of the rocks. With the polarized light microscope, geological engineers can easily verify textural correlation in rocks and recognize the minerals.

Polarization of light makes use of polarizer filters, where the light which normally travels in a wave will pass through. The amount of light that will be able to pass through the polarizing filter will depend on the vibration of the light. This is because only the light that is leaning on the same direction as the polarizing filter will pass through.

If in such cases that two polarizing filters were used and that the light passes through each other at 90-degree angle, no light passes all the way through. This is known as crossed polarization.

But if the second polarizing filter known as analyzer is used for analytical purposes of microscopy and is placed at any other orientation, a portion of the light will pass through resulting to polarized light.

Using this principle in polarizing light microscopy, the polarized light can enhance contrast that is focused in anisotropic analysis. This, in turn, exposes the complete information pertaining to the composition and organization of materials that are important for analytical purposes and classification.

However, experts say that in the field of geological engineering microscopy, polarizing light microscopes may not necessarily ascertain a material’s chemical structure or crystal composition. Generally, spectroscopic techniques are used to verify chemical composition while diffraction methods are used for determining crystal formation.

Then again, by the time the composition and structure of the materials are identified, they can now be correlated to some attributes or qualities that are visible and recognizable with a polarizing light microscope.

Summary

Scientific progress in the field of geological engineering has been made possible through the utilization of polarized light microscope. This instrument has significantly made wonders to advancement of geological engineering microscopy. With combined disciplines from the filed of Civil Engineering and Applied or Earth Science, it will be much easier for geological engineers to meet with the needs of the society in terms of conservation, exploration, and management of the earth’s resources and materials. Applying geological engineering microscopy, geological engineers can easily identify and classify the textural relationships of rocks and minerals, which, in turn, will help them in their projects such as designing port facilities, hydroelectric dams, highways, landfill sites, airports, water and sewage facilities, and buildings.