Naked Science Forum

Non Life Sciences => Geology, Palaeontology & Archaeology => Topic started by: Iwonda on 25/01/2020 04:22:07

Title: What type of quartz is this, and what are the shiny brown inclusions?
Post by: Iwonda on 25/01/2020 04:22:07

When looking at this piece of quartz up close, it looked as if it had a lot of glitter-like inclusions. After breaking it open there was this copper colored substance inside which seemed somewhat odd. I can't find anything on the web to explain what I'm looking at here. Is this typical quartz or something a bit different?
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Title: Re: What type of quartz is this, and what are the shiny brown inclusions?
Post by: chris on 25/01/2020 11:51:15

Is the mass-spec profile one you made from your rock, or did you add that for information?

Title: Re: What type of quartz is this, and what are the shiny brown inclusions?
Post by: Iwonda on 27/01/2020 04:09:14

Quote from: chris on 25/01/2020 11:51:15

Is the mass-spec profile one you made from your rock, or did you add that for information?

The mass-spec is showing the composition of the copper colored material that was found inside the quartz.

Title: Re: What type of quartz is this, and what are the shiny brown inclusions?
Post by: Bored chemist on 27/01/2020 19:26:44

That's not a mass spec.
(I suspect it's XRF)
This is mass spec.
https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https://s3.amazonaws.com/lowres.cartoonstock.com/science-scientist-lab-laboratory-physicist-physics-nki0266_low.jpg&imgrefurl=https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/s/spectrometer.asp&h=640&w=800&tbnid=t0cUWDp2T6zXxM&tbnh=201&tbnw=251&usg=AI4_-kTadf3V-0WWBzM6kGMIe95WFOMwAA&vet=1&docid=Az9uugdn1_W8FM

Title: Re: What type of quartz is this, and what are the shiny brown inclusions?
Post by: Iwonda on 02/02/2020 05:02:49

I wanted to use xrf but was told that it would penetrate beyond the target specimen. Just wanted to know the composition of the shiny metallic-like materials so a scientist recommended that I use edx. Was told that edx, like S.E.M could target a small area but without having to carbon coat, like the shiny areas in the specimen shown below. [ Invalid Attachment ]

Title: Re: What type of quartz is this, and what are the shiny brown inclusions?
Post by: evan_au on 02/02/2020 07:52:11

EDX = Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy

The peaks are X-Ray emissions from atoms irradiated by an X-Ray beam.
- The incoming X-Rays kick inner electrons out of atoms in the sample
- The remaining electrons then cascade down to fill the vacancy, each atom emitting a characteristic spectrum of lower-energy X-Rays in the process

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy-dispersive_X-ray_spectroscopy