Along with a measure of humidity, this is related to the porosity of the medium.
Under low stresses, grain fracturing may be absent and deformation is accommodated also by grain rotation, grain sliding and porosity reduction.
The porosity values of the ceramics and soil were estimated to be 15% and 30%, respectively.
Secondary porosity development (alarmingly called decompaction!) is thought to result from carbonate solution by carbonic acid formed by decarboxylation during early stage hydrocarbon generation.
The present day petrography of this formation shows a medium-grained and well-sorted quartzite with syntaxial quartz cements and virtually zero porosity.
Compaction increased soil bulk density and penetration resistance and decreased porosity and per meability.
It also looks at erosional processes, and very briefly at carbonate rock description and porosity.
As well as the mineralogy of the sample, the textures (grain size, shape, porosity) were determined.
