MINERAL COMPOSITION, CO2 CONTENT, AND GRAIN DENSITY OF DRILL HOLE SAMPLES FROM YUCCA FLAT, NEVADA TEST SITE

摘要

Mineral composition, CO2 content, and grain density have been determined for 148 samples from 108 drill holes in Yucca Flat, Nevada Test Site. The amounts of calcite, dolomite, and quartz were quan¬titatively determined by x-ray diffractometry using an internal standard. All other minerals were identified, and qual¬itative estimates of the x-ray intensities of zeolite, feldspar, and illite are given.nThe mean weight-percent values for 119 alluvium samples are:calcite 5.9, dolomite 4.5, and CO2 4.77. The median values for the same samples are:calcite 2.5, dolomite 1.5, and CO2 3.60. The modal classes are:calcite 1-2 (wt%), dolomite 0-1, and CO2 0-1.nAlthough two-thirds of the holes had only cuttings samples for the alluvium interval, analysis of size fractions of suitable samples indicates that cuttings samples provide a usable indicator of the carbonate content of the original rock.nIn general, grain density does not cor¬relate quantitatively with any one mineral, but in a suite of samples from one drill hole the correlation coefficient between dolomite and grain density was 0.933.