Application of XRF Scanning to Different Geological Archives

High-resolution XRF scanning is widely used on marine and lake sediment cores as a means of rapidly acquiring elemental concentrations from closely spaced intervals with no damage to the samples. Therefore, guidance on how to obtain reliable datasets and select suitable step sizes for different geol...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Earth and Space Science
Main Authors: Guo, Fei, Clemens, Steven, Liu, Xingxing, Long, Yili, Li, Dong, Tan, Liangcheng, Liu, Chengcheng, Yan, Hong, Sun, Youbin
Format: Report
Language:English
Published: AMER GEOPHYSICAL UNION 2021
Subjects:
XRF scanning analytical method
loess
stalagmite
tridacna
paleoclimate
INTERTROPICAL CONVERGENCE ZONE
TRACE-ELEMENT
TRIDACNA-GIGAS
REEF ENVIRONMENT
STABLE-ISOTOPES
NORTH-ATLANTIC
STORM SURGES
GIANT CLAMS
RESOLUTION
SPELEOTHEMS
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Geology
Geosciences
Multidisciplinary
North Atlantic
Online Access:http://ir.ieecas.cn/handle/361006/17058
http://ir.ieecas.cn/handle/361006/17059
https://doi.org/10.1029/2020EA001589
Description
Summary:High-resolution XRF scanning is widely used on marine and lake sediment cores as a means of rapidly acquiring elemental concentrations from closely spaced intervals with no damage to the samples. Therefore, guidance on how to obtain reliable datasets and select suitable step sizes for different geological media are of great importance. Here we apply this efficient analytical method to loess, stalagmite, and tridacna samples. The results show that 11 elements (Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Mn, Fe, Rb, Sr, Zr, and Ba), eight elements (Ca, Si, K, Fe, Cu, Ni, Sc, and Sr) and seven elements (Ca, Sr, Cu, Fe, Sc, Ni, and Si) can be robustly detected by this method for loess, stalagmite and tridacna archives respectively, demonstrating the capacity to reconstruct high-resolution paleoclimate changes. For loess cores, efficiency emission decay of the X-ray tube, water content, matrix, and grain size effects are the main factors influencing elemental intensities. The efficiency emission decay of the X-ray tube, scanning path, scanning interval, and radiation area have a significant effect on element intensities of stalagmite and tridacna samples. Based on our investigations, we suggest optimal resolutions for scanning these three archives for millennial to seasonal-scale paleoclimatic reconstructions. We compare our analyses with existing results from traditional (discrete) analyses, demonstrating similar scales of variability. Our results suggest that geochemical proxies measured by XRF scanning, such as Rb/Sr, Zr/Rb, and Ca/Ti ratios of loess and the Sr/Ca ratio of speleothem and tridacna, can be effectively used to reconstruct high-resolution paleoclimate changes.

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