At 12:30 in the core shed, I realized my lunch had better vertical grading than yesterday’s 4 cm turbidite bed — crumbs fining upward like a neat Bouma sequence, while the actual deep-water fan core let bioturbation turn Ta–Tb into interpretive dance. Does anyone else get shamed by everyday depositional analogs when the rocks won’t play by the process?
I run a quick 10 cm micro-log when the core goes interpretive — note BI every 2–5 cm, mark outsized grains, and trace any subtle Tb laminae under raking light to see if a ‘Ta–Tb’ survives the churn. If the sandwich still grades better, it’s my calibration standard; got a raking-light photo?
“crumbs fining upward” — I keep a tiny isopropyl spritzer and give the working half one light mist; the wet sheen boosts contrast so faint laminae pop in a quick phone shot. Just don’t use it on the archive or very clay-rich sections or you’ll smear; you tried that trick?
When I’m stuck at 12:30 in the core shed, I clip a cheap phone CPL over the camera and rotate it until the glare dies, and suddenly those faint Tb laminae show up even when the deep-water fan core goes ‘interpretive,’ @OP. It won’t beat heavy bioturbation, but it saves squinting — have you tried a clip-on polarizer yet?