Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T02:12:24.811Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Tephra from Ice—A Simple Method to Routinely Mount, Polish, and Quantitatively Analyze Sparse Fine Particles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2010

Stephen C. Kuehn  and
Duane G. Froese
Stephen C. Kuehn*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, 1-26 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canada
Duane G. Froese
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Alberta, 1-26 Earth Sciences Building, Edmonton, AB T6G 2E3, Canada
*
Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access

Abstract

A method involving a graphite substrate has been developed for the mounting and analysis of sparse, fine particles from a liquid suspension to enable improved study of volcanic ash (tephra) and atmospheric dust preserved in glacial ice. Unpolished grains may be studied by scanning electron microscope–energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS) at full vacuum without the need for a conductive coating due to the close proximity of the underlying graphite. The same grains in the same relative positions may be subsequently examined in polished mounts by a variety of methods including SEM-EDS, electron probe microanalysis, laser ablation–inductively coupled plasma–mass spectroscopy, secondary ion mass spectrometry, and optical microscopy. Particles as small as 3–5 μm may be routinely and easily prepared for analysis as polished grains, and particles of significantly different sizes may be exposed simultaneously. The general approach also offers significant flexibility, including both single- and multiple-sample mounts, and may be adjusted to suit a variety of samples and analytical methods.

Keywords

specimen preparationfine particle analysistephraice core tephrochronologymajor-element analysisscanning electron microscopyelectron probe microanalysis
Type
Materials Applications
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 16 , Issue 2 , April 2010 , pp. 218 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Admon, U., Donohue, D., Aigner, H., Tamborini, G., Bildstein, O. & Betti, M. (2005). Multiple-instrument analyses of single micron-size particles. Microsc Microanal 11, 354–362; doi: 10.1017/S1431927605050312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Davies, S.M., Wastegard, S., Rasmussen, T.L., Svensson, A., Johnsen, S.J., Steffensen, J.P. & Andersen, K.K. (2008). Identification of the Fugloyarbanki tephra in the NGRIP ice core: A key tie-point for marine and ice-core sequences during the last glacial period. J Quaternary Sci 23, 409–414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dugmore, A.J., Larsen, G. & Newton, A.J. (1995). Seven tephra isochrones in Scotland. Holocene 5, 257–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunbar, N.W., Zielinski, G.A. & Voisins, D.T. (2003). Tephra layers in the Siple Dome and Taylor Dome ice cores, Antarctica: Sources and correlations. J Geophys Res 108, 2374–2384; doi: 10.1029/2002JB002056.Google Scholar
Fisher, D., Osterberg, E., Dyke, A., Dahl-Jensen, D., Demuth, M., Zdanowicz, C., Bourgeois, J., Koerner, R.M., Mayewski, P., Wake, C., Kreutz, K., Steig, E., Zheng, J., Yalcin, K., Goto-Azuma, K., Luckman, B. & Rupper, S. (2008). The Mount Logan Holocene-late Wisconsinan isotope record; tropical Pacific-Yukon connections. Holocene 18, 667–677.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Germani, M.S. & Buseck, P.R. (1991). Automated scanning electron microscopy for atmospheric particle analysis. Anal Chem 63, 2232–2237.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kekonen, T., Moore, J., Perämäki, P. & Martma, T. (2005). The Icelandic Laki volcanic tephra layer in the Lomonosovfonna ice core, Svalbard. Polar Res 24, 33–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ward, B.C., Bond, J.D., Froese, D.G. & Jensen, B. (2008). Old Crow tephra (140 ± 10 ka) constrains penultimate Reid glaciation in central Yukon Territory. Quaternary Sci Rev 27, 1909–1915.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yalcin, K., Wake, C.P. & Germani, M.S. (2003). A 100-year record of North Pacific volcanism in an ice core from Eclipse Icefield, Yukon Territory, Canada. J Geophys Res 108, 4012; doi: 10.1029/2002JD002449.Google Scholar
Zdanowicz, C.M., Zielinski, G.A. & Germani, M.S. (1999). Mount Mazama eruption: Calendrical age verified and atmospheric impact assessed. Geology 27, 621–624.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zielinski, G.A., Mayewski, P.A., Meeker, L.D., Grönvold, K., Germani, M.S., Whitlow, S., Twickler, M.S. & Taylor, K. (1997). Volcanic aerosol records and tephrochronology of the Summit, Greenland, ice cores. J Geophys Res 102, 26625–26640.CrossRefGoogle Scholar