Reflectance, dielectric constant and chemical content of selected sedimentary rocks

Relationships among average spectral reflectance measured in the visible and near infrared (VNIR) region (0.4-2.5 mum), dielectric constant measured in the microwave region (0.5-18 GHz) and chemical content of 34 sedimentary rock samples were measured. The natural logarithm of the average spectral reflectance and that of the imaginary part of the dielectric constant were negatively correlated (rho = -0.60). The average spectral reflectance correlated negatively with Fe2O3 (rho = -0.61), Al2O3 (rho = -0.63), K2O (rho = -0.60), TiO2 (rho = -0.64), and P2O5 (rho = -0.60). The average imaginary part of the dielectric constant correlated positively with Fe2O3 (rho = 0.76), K2O (rho = 0.62), and TiO2 (rho = 0.70). The average real part of the dielectric constant is highly correlated with the weight loss of the rocks due to burning (burnt loss) (rho = 0.92), SiO2 (rho = -0.96), and CaO (rho = 0.91).