CORTEX, A SHIPBOARD XRF-SCANNER FOR ELEMENT ANALYSES IN SPLIT SEDIMENT CORES

The CORTEX (Corescanner Texel) is a non-destructive XRF system for the logging of split sediment cores. It is a seaworthy instrument that re mains active during heavy weather conditions. The scanner produces rel iable counts for K to Sr, highly correlated with concentrations measur ed with atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS). The option to scan Al, S i, and elements heavier than Sr is in preparation. A core section of 1 mm can be scanned at 2-cm intervals within an hour. A maximum resolut ion of 1 mm can be achieved. At: present, each region and sedimentary environment requires separate calibration. In the nearby future the ge nerator settings will be standardized, which may result in the develop ment of a standard calibration procedure. Because of the high resoluti on of its semi-quantitative records, the CORTEX is a useful tool for d etailed time-series analysis, inter-core correlation, and shipboard an alysis. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.