{"id":3956,"date":"2024-12-05T10:19:00","date_gmt":"2024-12-05T10:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/?p=3956"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:23:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T10:23:12","slug":"2024-accurate-electron-probe-microanalysis-of-key-petrogenetic-minor-and-trace-elements-in-cr-spinel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/?p=3956","title":{"rendered":"2024: Accurate electron probe microanalysis of key petrogenetic minor and trace elements in Cr-spinel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Accurate electron probe microanalysis of key petrogenetic minor and trace elements in Cr-spinel<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Abstract<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The trace element composition of Cr-spinel is paramount for interpreting the petrogenesis of a large group of mafic to ultramafic rocks. Although laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has proven to be very useful for the determination of trace element abundances of Cr-spinel, the characterization of Cr-spinel grains that are inhomogeneous over micrometer length scales requires the use of techniques that provide a better spatial resolution than LA-ICP-MS. In this work, we develop a protocol for the determination of trace and minor elements in Cr-spinel by electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) using the software provided by the manufacturer. The optimized analytical conditions (25 kV accelerating voltage, 900 nA beam current, 60\u2013480 s peak counting times, aggregate spectrometer data) allowed us to achieve detection limits (3\u03c3) in the range 4\u201326 ppm with relative analytical precisions (2\u03c3) in the range 1\u20133 % for all analyzed elements (Ti, V, Mn, Co, Ni, and Zn), except for Sc and Ga, for which the precision was much lower (36\u201346 %). The developed methodology was applied to the analysis of Cr-spinel grains from the Mayar\u00ed-Baracoa Ophiolitic Belt (eastern Cuba), in correspondence with previous LA-ICP-MS analyses, which were used to assess the reliability of the EPMA results. The root mean square percentage deviation (RMS) between the EPMA and LA-ICP-MS data was in the range 4.7\u201322.5 % for Ti, V, Mn, Co, Ni, and Zn, while for Ga the RMS value was 32.5 %. For Sc, the RMS value was much higher (171 %), despite the low detection limit achieved (4 ppm) for this element. Our results indicate that the trace element composition of primary Cr-spinel obtained by EPMA can be readily used, except for Sc, to constrain petrogenetic information on chromitites in a reliable way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>To Cite this article:<\/strong> Dom\u00ednguez-Carretero, D., Llovet, X., Pujol-Sola, N., Villanova-de-Benavent, C., &amp; Proenza, J. A. (2025). Accurate electron probe microanalysis of key petrogenetic minor and trace elements in Cr-spinel. Chemical Geology, 674, 122579.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>DOI:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0009254124006594?via%3Dihub\">10.1016\/j.chemgeo.2024.122579<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Accurate electron probe microanalysis of key petrogenetic minor and trace elements in Cr-spinel Abstract The trace element composition of Cr-spinel is paramount for interpreting the petrogenesis of a large group of mafic to ultramafic rocks. Although laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) has proven to be very useful for the determination of trace element abundances of Cr-spinel, the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/?p=3956\" class=\"read-more\">Continue Reading<\/a>","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[136,40,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-136","category-cuba","category-publications","cat-136-id","cat-40-id","cat-44-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3956","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3956"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3957,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3956\/revisions\/3957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/caribbeanlithos.ub.edu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}