**1. Introduction**

Automated mineralogy, or more correctly automated quantitative mineralogy (AQM) was developed in the 1980s to analyse the mineralogy, chemistry, and microstructures of mineral ores, fly ashes, and sediments with an energy dispersive spectrometry (EDX) detector mounted to a scanning electron microscope (SEM) [1–3]. This developed from a range of automated particle analysis procedures into software platforms, e.g., Qemscan, MLA, ZEISS Mineralogic, AMICS, or TIMA-X, dedicated to multiphase materials in a wide range of research fields including, but not limited to, forensic sciences, archaeometry, oil reservoir geology, urban mining, and material sciences [4–13]. Within geosciences, AQM is most widely used on ore minerals (for modal mineralogy, liberation, association, etc.) [13–15] and oil reservoir rocks (e.g., to describe mineralogy and porosity or provenance) [16–18]. However, other areas within geosciences have so far received less attention, (but see e.g., [19–21]). Apart from AQM with SEM-EDX systems, AQM can also be applied with wavelength dispersive spectrometry (WDX), micro-energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence, laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy and hyperspectral mineral analyses [22–24].

Many AQM systems, like Qemscan, MLA, or TIMA-X, apply spectrum-matching for the classification of the mineralogy of the samples. This AQM technique is based on generating unquantified EDX spectra in user-defined steps or specific spots or a raster on the sample surface. The EDX spectra are not matrix-corrected or quantified but matched against a library of known referenced EDX spectra (based on analyses of standards, or calculated from mineral formulas) [5,6,25,26]. The development of this library typically requires an extensive workflow on mineral spectrum validation using electron microprobe validation or pre-validated mineral standards.

AQM in geosciences (outside the mining industry) has mainly been used as a qualitative instrument, rather than a laboratory tool for quantitative measurements on mineralogy, chemistry, and morphology. There are several reasons for this: It takes a large e ffort to obtain reproducible data between AQM systems. This is caused by a lack of precise chemical data for most AQM systems, and for complex and variable mineral systems reduces the reliability and therefore the range of application of these AQM techniques in these research environments. Resulting from this is the fact that each mineral list for each spectrum-matching analysis is as precise as the geological and mineralogical knowledge of the operator. To analyze the same sample in a di fferent AQM system, or under di fferent analytical conditions requires the development of a new mineral library. Furthermore, to produce valuable petrological results, good quality data on textures and on minerals are needed, preferably with the chemical data derived from exactly the minerals that are visualized.

Here, we will present examples where the latest AQM solutions, such as ZEISS Mineralogic can provide new insights into metamorphic textures using advanced visualization and quantification methods. To our knowledge, no study with a metamorphic petrology focus exist based on ZEISS Mineralogic software, and only few studies based on other automated mineralogy platforms exist with metamorphic petrology as a main focus outside a mining and exploration setting [27–29]. AQM serves as an ideal tool to visualize metamorphic textures and to simultaneously quantify the mineralogy, chemistry, and grain properties of these textures. The applied software includes the possibility to obtain precise element chemistry and therefore to analyze minor-element contributions to variations in individual mineral compositions and to measure grain properties within multi-phase composites; both features are of interest for metamorphic petrologists. The ZEISS Mineralogic software also allows to exchange mineral lists between Mineralogic users or samples, or to change acceleration voltages without the need to create new mineral lists. These advanced chemical, mineralogical, and textural properties are applied here to visualize mineralogy and textures in a new way.

The examples used in this study are thin sections derived from the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland's (GEUS) sample collection of rocks from southern West-Greenland (Figure 1). This region comprises Archean basement rocks that are part of the North Atlantic Craton. The majority of the rocks are grey and brown tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) orthogneisses, intruded by granitic and granodioritic bodies, and by TTG-composition as well as mafic sheets. Intercalated in the orthogneisses are enclaves of supracrustal rocks including amphibolites, mafic granulites and mica-schists, but also lenses of ultramafic rocks. The area also includes the well-known Meso-Archean Fiskenæsset complex (a leucogabbro–anorthosite intrusive complex). The rocks of the Fiskenæsset complex intruded 2.97–2.95 Ga in amphibolites that already were deformed and metamorphosed by the time of the intrusion. The formation age of the amphibolites is estimated to be 2.90 Ga. [30–39].

At least three deformation phases a ffected the rocks in the area, where deformation was accommodated mainly by folding, but also by thrusting at a meter- to kilometer-scale. The region consists of several blocks or terrane that assembled into a larger unit at the latest part of theMeso-Archean age. The first regionally recognized deformation phase in the rocks can be observed in finely foliated isoclinally folded units (mica-schists, amphibolites, leucogabbroic rocks of the Fiskenæsset complex). The main deformation event metamorphosed the rocks in the area at amphibolite facies and granulite facies conditions. The e ffects of this main folding phase were overprinted by a later folding and thrusting phase at amphibolite facies conditions, before minor retrogressive overprint at greenschist facies conditions localized around late fault and shear zones. Uplift and erosion brought the rocks to the Earth's surface [30–32,34,36]. The tectonometamorphic processes a ffecting the region developed a range of metamorphic features that are used as examples to highlight the visualization and quantification of metamorphic textures by AQM applying the Mineralogic software.

**Figure 1.** Geological map of southern West-Greenland near the village Fiskenæsset. The localities of the samples used in this study are indicated with red dots. Map modified from GEUS [40].

#### **2. Materials and Methods**
