Recently it became increasingly evident that the statistical distributions of size
and shape descriptors of sedimentary particles reveal crucial information on their
evolution and may even carry the fingerprints of their provenance as fragments. However,
to unlock this trove of information, measurement of traditional geophysical shape
descriptors (mostly detectable on 2D projections) is not sufficient; fully spherical
3D imaging and mathematical algorithms suitable to extract new types of inherently
3D shape descriptors are necessary. Available 3D imaging technologies force users
to choose either speed or full sphericity. Only partial morphological information
can be extracted in the absence of the latter (e.g., LIDAR imaging). In the case of
fully spherical imaging, speed was proved to be prohibitive for obtaining meaningful
statistical samples, and inherently 3D shape descriptors were not extracted. Here
we present a new method by complementing a commercial, portable 3D scanner with simple
hardware to quickly obtain fully spherical 3D datasets from large collections of sedimentary
particles. We also present software for the automated extraction of 3D shapes and
automated measurement of inherently 3D-shape properties. This technique allows for
examining large samples without the need for transportation or storage of the samples,
and it may also facilitate the collaboration of geographically distant research groups.
We validated our software on a large sample of pebbles by comparing previously hand-measured
parameters with the results of automated shape analysis. We also tested our hardware
and software tools on a large pebble sample in Kawakawa Bay, New Zealand.