Study of diffraction data sets using factor analysis: a new technique for comparing mineralogical and geochemical data and rapid diagnostics of the mineral composition of large collections of rock samples

Abstract

This paper presents an example of comparing geochemical and mineralogical data by means of the statistical analysis of the X-ray diffraction patterns and the chemical compositions of bulk samples. The proposed methodology was tested on samples of metasomatic rocks from two geologically different objects. Its application allows us to mathematically identify all the main, secondary and some accessory minerals, to qualitatively estimate the contents of these minerals, as well as to assess their effect on the distribution of all petrogenic and investigated trace elements in a short period of time at the earliest stages of the research. We found that the interpretation of the results is significantly influenced by the number of samples studied and the quality of diffractograms.