RBS characterization of uranium in flint and chert

✍ Scribed by S. Matteson; M.J. Avara; C.V. Nguyen; S.H. Kim

• Book ID: 103860542
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 148 KB
• Volume: 241
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0168-583X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.nimb.2005.07.057

✦ Synopsis

The investigators report the analysis of coupons of mineral flint and chert of archaeological interest and various provenances in comparison to uranium-doped glass, mineral single crystal quartz and thermally grown silicon dioxide. The measurements are motivated by a desire to quantify the concentration of uranium in lithic sources of paleoindian artifacts; uranyl oxide is suspected to be the origin of the observed UV fluorescence. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS) confirmed the concentration of uranium in these minerals is on the order of tens of ppm as c-ray spectroscopy analysis suggested previously. The level of uranium present does not correlate, however, with the observed fluorescence behaviors. Optical effects such as absorption and quenching due to other impurities is suspected to be the cause of the differences.