Abstract
Element and mineral associations are fundamental parameters for palaeoceanographical reconstructions but laboratory methodologies are expensive, time-consuming and need a lot of material. Here, we investigate the quality and reliability of XRF measurements of major elements (Fe, Ti and Ca) using BTX II Benchtop, by comparing them with previous ICP-OES elemental analysis for a set of Late Pleistocene marine sediments from Campos Basin. Although the numerical values of the logarithmic form of the elementary ratios were different, the lnTi/Ca and lnFe/Ca ratios measured by both techniques (XRF and ICP-OES) presented similar downcore results. To correct the XRF intensity data, a linear regression model was calculated and, based on the linear equation generated, the logarithmic values of the elementary XRF ratios were corrected. After the correction, One-Sample t-test and Bland–Altman plot show that both techniques obtained similar results. In addition, a brief paleoceanographic interpretation, during the MIS 5 and MIS 4 periods, was conducted by comparing mineralogical and elementary analysis aiming to reconstruct the variations of the terrigenous input to the studied area. As a conclusion, the results from XRF measurements (BTX II) presented to confirm the viability of such a technique, showing that analysis using BTX II is a reliable, cheap, rapid and non-destructive option for obtaining elementary ratios and mineralogical downcore results at high resolution, allowing stratigraphic and paleoceanographic interpretations.
Highlights
The investigations of mineral and elemental composition of bulk sediments are extremely important in the field of marine geology because they are directly related to paleoclimate, source-to-sink processes, marine primary productivity and post-depositional changes
We investigate the efficiency of X-ray fluorescence (XRF) measurements of major elements (Fe, Ti and Ca) using BTX II Benchtop, by comparing them with previous Inductively Coupled Plasma-Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) elemental analysis for a set of marine sediments recovered from piston core GL-451 (21◦09.8 S; 39◦57.2 W), located in the Brazilian Continental Margin [18], and compare the results obtained from this technique with data from X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements to identified different patterns of terrigenous input to the studied area
The samples ranging from 600 cm to 1200 cm were selected, which allows study the period between 59 kyrs BP and 100 kyrs BP, to investigate the efficiency of XRF measurements of major elements and compare these results with the mineralogy changes occurring along the marine isotope stage (MIS) transition from MIS 5 to MIS 4
Summary
The investigations of mineral and elemental composition of bulk sediments are extremely important in the field of marine geology because they are directly related to paleoclimate, source-to-sink processes, marine primary productivity and post-depositional changes. There are still uncertainties on how those processes express in terms of mineralogical and elemental abundances on slope environment in a tropical climate. This lack is related to the fact that minerals and elements are time-consuming, expensive, and need several grams of material that is completely destroyed during the measurements. XRF defines the concentrations of chemical elements and, minerals in the sample, or directly in the core, obtaining several key information from the past climate, oceanography and atmosphere (e.g., [1,5,6,7])
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