ISSN 2070-5379 Neftegasovaâ geologiâ. Teoriâ i practika (RUS) URL: http://www.ngtp.ru _______________________________________________________________________________________ © Neftegazovaya Geologiya. Teoriya I Praktika, 2012, vol. 7, no. 2, available at: http://www.ngtp.ru/rub/2/21_2012.eng.pdf 1 Zhuravlev A.V. 1 , Vevel Y.A. 2 All-Russia Petroleum Research Exploration Institute (VNIGRI), Saint Petersburg, Russia, 1 micropalaeontology@gmail.com, 2 Yadviga_Vevel@mail.ru POSSIBILITIES OF COMPUTED MICROTOMOGRAPHY APPLICATION IN MICROPALAEONTOLOGICAL AND LITHOLOGICAL STUDIES Possibilities of the computed X-ray and optic tomography in the micropalaeontological and lithological studies are considered. X-ray microtomography allows determining phosphate microfossils (conodonts) avoiding special sample preparation; evaluate the total porosity and concentration of sulfides. The optic microtomography promises results in histological study of conodont elements. Key words: tomography, micropalaeontology, conodonts, foraminifers, lithology, carbonates, silicites. Computed microtomography becomes the widely used method in different branches of the palaeontology and lithology last years [Withjack, 1988; Wellington, Vinegar, 1987; Peters, Afzal, 1992; Johns et al., 1993; Ketcham and Carlson, 2001; Arns et al., 2005; Tafforeau et al., 2006; Błażejowski et al., 2011; Zalewska, Kaczmarczyk, 2011]. This study is aimed to evaluation of the efficiency of tomographic methods in the micropalaeontological and lithological researches. X-ray microtomography Microfossils and lithological sample were scanned with an isotropic voxel resolution of 14- 6.6 mkm at the Skyscan 1174 compact micro-CT (50 KV, 800 uA) of the Mining Institute at St.Petersburg. 3-dimensional reconstructions and tomogram processing were made using NRecon, DataViewer, CTvox (SkyScan), Voxler (Golden Software Inc.), and VolView 3 (Kitware Inc.) software. Micropalaeontological objects Conodont elements and foraminifera tests were investigated with the micro-CT equipment. The Pa elements of Mehlina fitzroyi (Druce), Polygnathus lanei Kuzmin (Middle Frasnian of the Main Devonian Field, East European Platform); Polygnathus parapetus Druce (Lower Tournaisian of the Pecjora Swell, Kamenka River section); Polygnathus experplexus Sandberg et Ziegler (Famennian of the Timan-Pechora Basin, Talota River section); Siphonodella quadruplicata (Branson et Mehl), Siphonodella sandbergi belkai Dzik, and Siphonodella lobata (Branson et Mehl) (Tournaisian of the Polar Urals, Kozhym River section); and S elements of Polygnathidae (Frasnian of the Main Devonian Field, East European Platform) represent studied conodont collection. Additionally conodont elements were found in the clayey silicite samples (Upper Tournaisian of the Polar Urals, Kozhym River section), and in the clayey limestone samples (Upper Frasnian of the Kosyu Depression, Timan-Pechora Basin).