One of the benefits of having a purpose-built palynological laboratory on the premises is that it gives our palynologists the opportunity to quality control each sample so our clients receive the best results possible.
“The laboratory tour was very fascinating and demonstrated the amount of sensitivity given to each sample as it passes through the MGPalaeo workflow onto the stratigrapher for analysis under the microscope.”
As part of our standard processing methodology, our in-house palynologists will check all slides prior to the oxidation step. This allows us to determine what, if any, oxidation is needed. But it also gives us the chance to check the overall quality of the slides. Sometimes the standard methodology will need to be modified to better suit the type of sediment being processed; some samples will have excess oil from the drilling mud causing organic particles to clump or to restrict the yield, while others might contain extensive amorphous organic material or other small particulate matter. Particularly sandy samples might need longer dissolution in acid in order to extract the organics.
If additional steps (or a completely revamped processing method) are necessary, the samples will go back into the lab and the QC process will begin again.
Another benefit of an on-site lab is that we can have specific samples reprocessed if they turn out to be of particular importance in refining a zonal pick or marine spike. This is particularly relevant in Triassic sections, where dinocysts are extremely rare.
For more information, or to visit our lab, please contact us.
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