STRATEGY FOR DEVELOPING AND CALIBRATING SHALE AND MUDSTONE CHEMOSTRATIGRAPHIES USING HANDHELD X-RAY FLUORESCENCE UNITS AND ITS USE ON AN AUTOMATED CORE SCANNER

This illustrates the approach used by Harry Row, University of Texas, Austin to establish a dedicated calibration for shale on a pXRF unit to enable chemo stratigraphy of shales. Starting from the selection of representative in type reference samples, developing a suitable sample preparation to the calibration and matrix correction, we will step thru the process. The method validation versus ICP and WD XRF and comparison have been previously published (1).

Using the calibration now with Helium instead of Vacuum mode as well as an automated Core Scanner one can achieve more data points and better reproducaibility than with the "hand held" method.

(1) Rowe, H. D., Hughes, N., and Robinson, K., 2012, The quantification and application of handheld energy-dispersive x-ray fluorescence (ED-XRF) in mudrock chemostratigraphy and geochemistry. Chemical Geology 324-325, 122-131.