The prevalence of ooids in the stratigraphic record, and their association with shallow‐water carbonate environments, make ooids an important paleoenvironmental indicator. Recent advances in the theoretical understanding of ooid morphology, along with empirical studies from Turks and Caicos, Great Salt Lake, and The Bahamas, have demonstrated that the morphology of ooids is indicative of depositional environment and hydraulic conditions. To apply this knowledge from modern environments to the stratigraphic record of Earth’s history, researchers measure the size and shape of lithified ooids on two‐dimensional surfaces (i.e., thin sections), often assuming that random 2D slices intersect the nuclei and that the orientation of the ooids is known. Here, we demonstrate that these assumptions rarely are true, resulting in errors of up to 35% for metrics like major axis length. We present a method for making 3D reconstructions by serial grinding and imaging, which enables accurate measurement of the morphology of individual ooids within an oolite, as well as the sorting and porosity of a sample. We also provide three case studies that use the morphology of ooids in oolites to extract environmental information. Each case study demonstrates that 2D measurements can be useful if the environmental signal is large relative to the error from 2D measurements. However, 3D measurements substantially improve the accuracy and precision of environmental interpretations. This study focuses on oolites, but errors from 2D measurements are not unique to oolites; this method can be used to extract accurate grain and porosity measurements from any coherent, granular sample.

中文翻译：

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橄榄石中卵石的三维形态学：一种用于更准确，更精确地解释古环境的新工具

地层记录中阿片类物质的普遍性及其与浅水碳酸盐环境的联系使阿片类物质成为重要的古环境指标。关于卵石形态的理论理解的最新进展，以及来自特克斯和凯科斯群岛，大盐湖和巴哈马的实证研究表明，卵石的形态指示沉积环境和水力条件。为了将现代环境中的知识应用到地球历史的地层记录中，研究人员通常在假设二维二维切片与原子核相交且其方向确定的情况下，测量二维表面（即薄片）上的卵石状卵石的大小和形状。燕麦片是已知的。在这里，我们证明了这些假设很少是正确的，导致诸如主轴长度之类的指标的误差高达35％。我们提出了一种通过串行研磨和成像进行3D重建的方法，该方法能够准确测量橄榄岩中单个卵石的形态以及样品的分类和孔隙率。我们还提供了三个案例研究，这些案例使用橄榄岩中的卵石形态来提取环境信息。每个案例研究都表明，如果环境信号相对于2D测量的误差较大，则2D测量可能会有用。但是，3D测量可以大大提高环境解释的准确性和精确度。这项研究的重点是卵石，但是二维测量产生的误差并不是卵石独有的。该方法可用于从任何相干中提取出准确的晶粒度和孔隙率测量值，