The Core Imaging Laboratory, known internally as Club Mud, houses an Avaatech X-Ray Fluorescence Core Scanner and a GEOTEK Multi-Sensor Core Logger, instruments that together provide rapid non-destructive measurements of geochemical and geophysical properties in sediment or rock cores. X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is an active sensing method that uses X-ray emissions to sense elements of different atomic number. XRF core scanners are designed to make such measurements on split core surfaces.
The Club Mud XRF scanner provides concentration data on a broad suite of elements ranging from Al through U, with detection limits for lithologically important elements that come close to what can achieved through traditional methods. Our instrument was the first Avaatech XRF scanner installed in North America. XRF core scanners are ideally suited for high-resolution paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic studies of the type undertaken at the Rosenstiel School because of the ability to generate elemental data rapidly without physical sampling and because the wide range of elements that can be detected provides a powerful means of constraining sediment composition and conditions of deposition.
For geophysical measurements, a Geotek Multi-Sensor Core Logger (MSCL) is available that enables a suite of analyses to be obtained rapidly, accurately and automatically on sediment or rock cores. The range of parameters that can be measured includes P-wave velocity, gamma density, magnetic susceptibility, and electrical resistivity. A GEOSCAN digital line scan camera system provides precise depth-registered images that can be correlated with other data sets or used when describing cores.
Contact Information: Dr. Larry Peterson, Professor of Marine Geosciences Tel: 305.421.4692 lpeterson@rsmas.miami.edu
