09 May X-ray System at OGS Italy
Geotek’s X-ray CT instruments offer an affordable, time efficient and practical system, perfect for geological research laboratories. Specifically built for geological applications, our X-ray CT product range enables geoscientists to visualise the natural and artificial structure of unconsolidated sediment and rock core samples, which otherwise might not be visible to the naked eye. The opportunity to image and identify the sedimentological structures is what led the National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics (OGS) to acquire their own Geotek X-ray radiography (XR) system.
The Geotek X-ray System at the OGS laboratory
In March 2017, the Geotek XR was installed at a joint laboratory between OGS and the Department of Mathematics and Geosciences of the University of Trieste, Italy. Following its acquisition, the system has been used for both research and commercial projects. The OGS are currently focussing on marine and coastal sediment cores using their XR system, to provide valuable geological information for a range of geoscience applications such as geohazard, stratigraphy, and paleoclimatic studies. The high resolution X-ray radiographs over the full core width are capable of identifying fracturing, bedding, and stratigraphic units, as well as determining paleocurrent activities, and identifying glacigenic deposits such as ice-rafted debris to study past glacier dynamics.
Since installation, the Geotek XR has been involved in cutting edge climate research projects. For example, The Italy-Argentina Ministry of Foreign Affairs funded a collaboration project to reconstruct the lake flooding due to glacier advancements in the past. The X-ray radiographs acquired from the Geotek XR show in excellent detail the micro-fine layers related to lake flooding deposits, greatly improving the determination of depositional processes. The Geotek XR system has also scanned cores that are stored in the National Antarctic Museum (MNA). These cores were acquired in the 2017 Italian Antarctic campaigns by the Italian Antarctic Research Program (PNRA), which compiled a wealth of geological information used to advance paleoclimate science, so that we may learn from past events and advance our predictions for the future.
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