Dehydration and stabilization of unconsolidated laminated lake sediments using gypsum for the preparation of thin sections

Abstract

An improved Lamoureux method for subsampling of unconsolidated laminated sediment is described. Here, we describe a new methodological approach that changes the Lamoureux method in four steps of which the most important change concerns dehydration and stabilization. In this step, we adopted gypsum embedding of the subsample, which took about 1 h to harden and keeps the sediment partially moist. After drying of the gypsum, the subsamples are impregnated with Epoxy 2000 resin under room temperature. This method requires commonly available equipment and can be implemented cost-effectively within 3–4 days.

Keywords

• paleolimnology
• annually laminated deposit
• dehydration
• micro-facies analyses
• varve counting