X-ray CT scanning technique and its application to the Core 01 in the northern South China Sea for sedimentary environment reconstruction

X-ray CT scanning and three-dimension reconstruction techniques are widely used in geological research nowadays. However, their application to deep sea sediment cores remains rare. In this study, a deep-sea core labeled Core 01 taken from the northern South China Sea was subjected to a full core X-ray CT scan. The images were imputed into Mimics, a three-dimensional modeling software, to carry out 3D reconstruction of the internal structures of the core, which includes the pore structures at 0～1.0 m and the external shape of fossils at 4.2 m. The results confirmed that X-ray CT scan is feasible for study of deep sea sediment cores. In addition, in combination with the AMS ¹⁴C dating data of planktonic foraminifera, the oxygen carbon stable isotope results of benthic foraminifera, and the geological background of this region, it is inferred that the formation of pores in the sediment core may be related to the release of natural gas hydrates.