Using Elemental Ratios of Immobile Metal Oxides to Identify Changes in Parent Material in Central Ohio
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Date
2023-05
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The Ohio State University
Abstract
Twenty-five soil profiles located in West-Central Ohio on the Wisconsin-age till plain were studied to determine whether stable metal oxide concentrations in Ohio consistently reflect known lithologic discontinuities. The second objective was to investigate if these values indicate parent materials and can aid in their identification. Zirconium, Titanium, and Yttrium were measured in the unfractionated samples using an X-ray fluorescent spectrometer. The metal oxide ratios from these elements graphed as a function of depth showed variable results correlating with known parent materials. It was concluded that the unfractionated soils could have better represented the elemental concentrations, there were overlooked lithologic discontinuities in the field determinations, or the variable nature of some parent materials made it difficult to find correlations within the data. Furthermore, the Y: Zr ratio value suggested that it may indicate loess and till if soil samples are fractionated before XRF analysis.
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Keywords
soil parent material, lithologic discontinuity, titanium, yttrium, zirconium, XRF