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Is it possible to preserve a soil profile?


aplomado

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I am planning to visit a place where the KT barrier is exposed.

 

I am interested in taking a sample of the profile, if feasible, and preparing a display of it.

 

Any ideas how this might be done?

 

Maybe cut out a slab of it and spray it with adhesive?

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I've seen it done on preservation of soft sediments here in Belgium where they took sample of miocene and pliocene deposits in situ with fossils.

 

they cleaned up a kind of base that was then consolidated with a mixture of Velpon glue with acetone

This got into the soft sediment and consolidated the whole block, it had to be treated multiple times over a long period.

I have a publication on this at home, I 'll see if I can find the paper online and post it here this evening.

 

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growing old is mandatory but growing up is optional.

 

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Now there is a question you don't see every day. :)

 

Pretty cool pilgrimage to be able to visit the KT (now more commonly KPg) boundary.

 

The problem is that the boundary layer from which you'd like to preserve a section will be vertically oriented. This will be difficult to perfuse with some sort of consolidant. I'd presume that any of the commonly used fossil consolidants polyvinyl butyral (Butvar) or Acryloid B-72 or even PVA (polyvinyl acetate) might work to permeate the soil layer with liquid plastic that would dry and form a stable solid sample for later display. The trick would be to rotate the sample so that gravity could help to pull through the consolidant to saturate the sample. I'm wondering if some sort of metal "plugging" tool might be used to, in effect, core out a horizontal sample keeping it intact and allowing it to be rotated and then consolidated. Depending on the desired sample size, I'm thinking of something like a tin can (of chosen size) with both ends cut off to make a simple and possibly effective coring tool.

 

If you do manage to preserve such a sample, please take photos of the process (and the resulting sample) as I'm sure we'd all be interested in what worked (and didn't). Good luck in this quest.

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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I like the core sample idea. You will definitely want something to hold the sample in place while you consolidate. I would think a dilute solution of Paraloid or the like would do well to consolidate it.

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Will the tin-can-sized core sample idea be big enough? Seems to me you'd like as large a section as possible, to show more of the context of the boundary layer - if possible. I imagine the method will depend on the material, how crumbly it is, or will you be able to hack out a sizeable block... etc.

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Pretty interesting question if possible get a few samples and try different methods. It reminds me of an ant farm type display also could be useful and you could add some decals to display the information.  Cheers Bobby 

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4 hours ago, Wrangellian said:

Will the tin-can-sized core sample idea be big enough?

Do they still sell coffee in tin coffee cans? :) (I prefer Coca Cola.) ;)

 

 

Cheers.

 

-Ken

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Oh yes, hadn't thought of that- they do still sell coffee in big cans - one of those would give you a larger sample, if the method works.

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