Techniques enabling in situ elemental and mineralogical analysis on extraterrestrial planets are strongly required for upcoming missions and are being continuously developed. There is ample need for quantitative and high-sensitivity analysis of elemental as well as isotopic composition of heterogeneous materials. Here we present in situ spatial and depth elemental profiles of a heterogeneous ro...

Monitoring of body burden of toxic elements is usually based on analysis of concentration of particular elements in blood, urine and/or hair. Analysis of these matrices, however, predominantly reflects short- or medium-term exposure to trace elements or pollutants. In this work, urinary stones were investigated as a matrix for monitoring long-term exposure to toxic and essential elements. A tot...

Geochemical analysis of the surface material of terrestrial type planets is of fundamental importance in understanding the geological context of the planetary environment. Consequently this analysis should be performed whenever possible and indeed this has occurred on a number of previous landers. Current techniques include X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and Rutherford back-scattering of alpha partic...

Bioaccessibility tests and mineralogical analyses were performed on arsenic-contaminated tailings and soils from gold mine districts of Nova Scotia, Canada, to examine the links between soil composition, mineralogy, and arsenic bioaccessibility. Arsenic bioaccessibility ranges from 0.1% to 49%. A weak correlation was observed between total and bioaccessible arsenic concentrations, and the arsen...

Quantitative determination of the mineralogical composition of hydrothermally altered rocks was performed by means of the Rietveld method using X-ray powder-diffraction data. Initially, experiments were carried out to minimize systematic errors arising from preferred orientation of particles as well as micro-absorption. The precision of the proposed method was tested by independent replicate sa...

Kaolin from the Buwambo deposit, located about 27 km north of Kampala (Uganda), has been analyzed for its mineralogical and chemical composition. The kaolin is derived from granite of the basement, which is exposed due to deeply weathered Buganda-Toro cover rocks. Kaolinite is the dominant mineral, with quartz and muscovite/illite as accessory minerals. Chemical data show that the kaolin is com...

The widespread degradation of lotic ecosystems has prompted extensive river restoration efforts globally, but many studies have reported modest ecological responses to rehabilitation practices. The functional properties of biotic communities are rarely examined within post-project appraisals, which would provide more ecological information underpinning ecosystem responses to restoration practic...

Manufactured sand differs from natural sea and river dredged sand in its physical and mineralogical properties. These can be both beneficial and detrimental to the fresh and hardened properties of concrete. This paper presents the results of a laboratory study in which manufactured sand produced in an industry sized crushing plant was characterised with respect to its physical and mineralogical...