Publication: Loss on ignition: a qualitative or quantitative method for organic matter and
carbonate mineral content in sediments?
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Publication Date
2004-10
Authors
Mediavilla López, Rosa María
López Pamo, Enrique
Dabrio, Cristino J.
Ruiz Zapata, María Blanca
Gil García, M. José
Castaño Castaño, Silvino
Martínez Alfaro, Pedro E.
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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
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Abstract
Since the publication of the paper of Dean (1974), loss on ignition (LOI) has been widely used as a method
to estimate the amount of organic matter and carbonate mineral content (and indirectly of organic and
inorganic carbon) in sediments. The relationships between LOI at 550 ºC (LOI550) and organic carbon
(OC) content and between LOI at 950 ºC (LOI950) and inorganic carbon (IC) content are currently accepted
as a standard. However, the comparison of 150 analyses of samples of diverse lithologies, collected
from a single core, reveals that these relationships are affected by sediment composition (presence of clays,
salts, and the variable content of organic carbon). This results in an incremental error on the estimation of
carbon content from LOI values that invalidates the use of LOI values as a quantitative method for
estimating carbon content. Conversely, the general trends of LOI550 and LOI950 show a good correlation
with carbon content (both organic and inorganic) allowing use of LOI as a qualitative test for carbon
content. Similarly, in our case, LOI at 105 ºC (LOI105) is a good qualitative proxy for the trends in gypsum
content.
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The original publication is available at www.springerlink.com