Quantifying the three-dimensional shapes of spheroidal objects in rocks imaged by tomography

By 'averaging' the ellipsoids for all the objects measured in a rock, one can then readily describe its fabric by an average ellipsoid. And if that average ellipsoid is interpreted as a strain ellipsoid, and assuming all objects have undergone the same strain, each object can be 'retro-deformed' and the inferred initial population of objects studied.