Estimation of the Range of Variation in the Mineral Composition of Silicate Lake Bottom Sediments Using Data from XRD and XRF

Abstract

A method is proposed for estimating the range of mineral group content in the cores of silicate bottom sediments of lakes based on the search for the minimum and maximum content of stoichiometric minals that make up the group of minerals, provided that the balance of the mineral composition and the content of elements in the sample is observed. The mineral components were determined using the method of qualitative X-ray phase analysis, the contents of the main rock-forming elements were determined by X-ray fluorescence analysis. Comparison with the results of quantitative X-ray phase analysis showed that the contents of mineral groups either lie in the range calculated in the extreme search procedure based on data on the element composition, or overlap with the calculated range within the measurement error. The systematic discrepancy between the results of calculating the range of content of the silicon dioxide phase and the results of quantitative X-ray phase determination of quartz observed for the samples under consideration is due to the presence of an X-ray amorphous phase of biogenic silica. The proposed method for estimating the range of mineral group content is easy to implement, uses the publicly available MS Excel software, and can be useful for estimating variations in mineral composition by core depth, in conditions of frequent shortages of individual sample material distributed between different methods of analysis