X-RAY FLUORESCENCE COMBINED WITH CHEMOMETRICS FOR THE CHARACTERIZATION OF GEOLOGICAL SAMPLES: A CASE STUDY IN SOUTHEASTERN SENEGAL

Abstract

Characterization of magmatic, metamorphic, and mineralized metamorphic rock collected in southeastern Senegal in West Africa was performed based on elemental analysis by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence. The rock classification scheme based on chemical composition was obtained by a combination of principal component analysis and hierarchical clustering techniques to discriminate magmatic, metamorphic, and mineralized metamorphic rock. An improved sensitivity of signal-to-noise ratio was obtained using a thin silver X-ray excitation source with several appropriate filters. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence was used to characterize the major oxides, and the results were compared to previous studies.

Keywords:

• chemometrics
• hierarchical cluster analysis
• principal component analysis
• rock
• X-ray fluorescence

Notes

(^*) Not Detected.

(**) Not Available.

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