Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2013
An improved backloading method to determine the reference intensity ratios of sedimentary minerals is presented. More than 50 reference intensity ratios of more than ten types of minerals formed in typical sedimentary environments were measured. Quantitative tests were performed on those minerals. Comparison of the results show that this method minimizes preferred orientation and improves quantitative precision (absolute deviation is less than 3%) so that it is an acceptable specimen loading method.