X-Ray Vision: Lab Update

 

Yesterday marked an interesting day for the laboratory process. Up till this point I have been examining the lithologies of cores (visible variations in the organic material such as striping) and subsampling for the radiocarbon dating and particle size analysis. All sampling had been done so far on Mirror Lake (site #1). Yesterday we opened up the Drive 1 core from Cottonwood Lake.

This core is flecked with micah and felt slightly gritty to the touch. At first glance looked made up of all the same organic material, has darker striping bands that contain slightly more micah. Dr. Briles, my adviser, suggested examining the geochemistry before subsampling.

To do this, we used the Olympus XRF machine. XRF is the short name for x-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy machine. A new piece of equipment to the Geography and Environmental Science department at the University of Colorado Denver. The XRF machine (pictured above) is literally a geological x-ray gun! It examines the elemental composition of the core by using x-rays. A slightly heavy piece of equipment but, as you can see in the picture we rigged on a beaker stand to x-ray the core. It can either be set to soil composition or geochemistry. At the end of each test, it gives a read out of major percentages, and elements found in parts per million. IT is a slow processes, but I am hopeful for the results! As we explore all the different uses of this piece of equipment, we'll be able to trace metals and other elements to their origin, thus tracking where slides came from.

Its been a great experience beginning to learn about this important tool, and I will update as we go!