Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI

This volume represents the proceedings of the homonymous international conference on all aspects of impact cratering and planetary science, which was held in October 2019 in Brasília, Brazil. The volume contains a sizable suite of contributions dealing with regional impact records (Australia, Sweden), impact craters and impactites, early Archean impacts and geophysical characteristics of impact structures, shock metamorphic investigations, post-impact hydrothermalism, and structural geology and morphometry of impact structures—on Earth and Mars. Many contributions report results from state-of-the-art investigations, for example, several that are based on electron backscatter diffraction studies, and deal with new potential chronometers and shock barometers (e.g., apatite). Established impact cratering workers and newcomers to the field will appreciate this multifaceted, multidisciplinary collection of impact cratering studies.
Micro–X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) analysis of proximal impactites: High-resolution element mapping, digital image analysis, and quantifications Available to Purchase
*Kaskes and Déhais contributed equally to this study. Corresponding author e-mail addresses: [email protected] (Kaskes), [email protected] (Déhais).
*Kaskes and Déhais contributed equally to this study. Corresponding author e-mail addresses: [email protected] (Kaskes), [email protected] (Déhais).
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Published:August 02, 2021
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CiteCitation
Pim Kaskes*, Thomas Déhais*, Sietze J. de Graaff, Steven Goderis, Philippe Claeys, 2021. "Micro–X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) analysis of proximal impactites: High-resolution element mapping, digital image analysis, and quantifications", Large Meteorite Impacts and Planetary Evolution VI, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Christian Koeberl
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ABSTRACT
Quantitative insights into the geochemistry and petrology of proximal impactites are fundamental to understand the complex processes that affected target lithologies during and after hypervelocity impact events. Traditional analytical techniques used to obtain major- and trace-element data sets focus predominantly on either destructive whole-rock analysis or laboratory-intensive phase-specific micro-analysis. Here, we present micro–X-ray fluorescence (µXRF) as a state-of-the-art, time-efficient, and nondestructive alternative for major- and trace-element analysis for both small and large samples (up to 20 cm wide) of proximal impactites. We applied µXRF element mapping on 44 samples from the Chicxulub, Popigai, and Ries impact structures, including impact breccias, impact melt rocks, and shocked target lithologies. The µXRF mapping required limited to no sample preparation and rapidly generated high-resolution major- and trace-element maps (~1 h for 8 cm2, with a spatial resolution of 25 µm). These chemical distribution maps can be used as qualitative multi-element maps, as semiquantitative single-element heat maps, and as a basis for a novel image analysis workflow quantifying the modal abundance, size, shape, and degree of sorting of segmented components. The standardless fundamental parameters method was used to quantify the µXRF maps, and the results were compared with bulk powder techniques. Concentrations of most major elements (Na2O–CaO) were found to be accurate within 10% for thick sections. Overall, we demonstrate that µXRF is more than only a screening tool for heterogeneous impactites, because it rapidly produces bulk and phase-specific geochemical data sets that are suitable for various applications within the earth sciences.
- Asia
- Bavaria Germany
- Central Europe
- Chicxulub Crater
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- digital data
- Europe
- experimental studies
- Germany
- high-resolution methods
- image analysis
- impact craters
- impact features
- impactites
- laboratory studies
- major elements
- metamorphic rocks
- Popigay Structure
- quantitative analysis
- Ries Crater
- Russian Federation
- spectra
- trace elements
- X-ray fluorescence spectra