THE COMPLEMENTARY USE OF EPMA, APT AND SIMS IN THE GEOSCIENCES; FROM MICRO TO NANO; FROM MINERALOGY AND GEOCHEMISTRY TO GEOCHRONOLOGY

Recent developments in a wide variety of analytical and related instrumentation, as well as their applicability to a wide variety of fields in geo-, planetary and astro- sciences have opened new doors to new levels of chemical characterization along with suffucient analytical accuracy and preceision. Many geoscience labs today are indeed equipped with, or have access to, high performance tools such as EPMA, FEG-SEM, STEM, DB-FIB, SIMS, Auger, Raman, XRF, XRD, LA-ICPMS, TIMS, and of late, APT (Atom Probe Tomography) and Computed X-Ray Tomography.

This poster shall review three such techniques -- EPMA, APT and SIMS -- where advances in EPMA hardware, software and analytical/imaging routines have enhanced the understaning mineralogical features prior to SIMS and APT characterization in geochemistry, as well as provided its own answers to mineral growth history, including age-mapping.