Yes rutile will survive and
gather information. It also happens to
be the best mineral for titanium extraction which pretty well explains its
ability to survive.
This sounds as if we are able to
do far more with a scant sample than we ever imagined.
Thus rutile will serve a key
application as a pathfinder to mineral deposits and their ancient formation.
A tiny grain helps reveal the history of a rock
by Staff Writers
"We can identify the rock from which the rutile originates, even if we only have a tiny grain of rutile," says researcher Thomas Zack,
Rutile is used in ceramics and paints, but is particularly useful for finding out about the history of a rock. Where mineral deposits are found, rutile is often also present. The new methods therefore bring opportunities for strategies to find other mineral deposits, such as gold.
Until now, rutile has been a relatively unknown mineral, despite not being
rare. For example, rutile can be found on most sandy beaches around the world,
including in Sweden
"It's incredible to see how little attention was paid to rutile
until around five years ago," says geologist and researcher Thomas Zack,
from the University of Gothenburg's Department of Earth Sciences, who has
devoted much of his scientific career to studying the mineral.
Now, geologists can identify rock types containing rutile and follow the changes in temperature and pressure that they have been exposed to throughout its history, even if rutile is barely visible to the naked eye. Previously, researchers had to investigate considerably more rutile-bearing samples in order to carry out analyses.
"But now we can identify the rock from which the rutile
originates, even if we only have a tiny grain of rutile," adds Thomas.
The new method is called "Laser Ablation ICP-MS", and
produces results much faster than previous methods.
"In analytical terms, this is one of the most important analytical
instruments at the Department of Earth Sciences here in Gothenburg,"
concludes Thomas Zack.
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