Portable XRF Sediment Analysis from Fort Drum, New York, 2023

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis results from sediment samples collected at U.S. Army Base Fort Drum, Jefferson County, New York. The data, collected in 2023 and revised in May 2025, was gathered from five portable optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) grids to constrain elemental abundance variations. This work was a collaboration with Fort Drum divisions and funded by the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program.

Use Cases

• Analyze elemental abundance variations within the five OSL grids (G1 through G5) to map sediment geochemistry.
• Correlate pXRF results with particle size data from the same samples to investigate relationships between grain size and elemental composition.
• Validate pXRF elemental measurements by comparing them with ICP-MS results from subsamples of grids G3 and G4.
• Use the sediment geochemistry data to support environmental or geological mapping studies at Fort Drum.

Strengths

• Data collection involved a Bruker S1 Titan instrument, a specific and calibrated tool for pXRF analysis.
• Samples were collected from five distinct OSL grids (G1-G5), providing a structured spatial sampling framework.
• Data was revised in May 2025 to correct sample IDs and coordinates, indicating a quality control process.

Limitations

• The dataset is provided only in XML format, which may require parsing or conversion for analysis in common data science tools.
• The sample size (number of rows) is unknown, making it difficult to assess the statistical power of analyses.
• The dataset is focused on a single location and year (Fort Drum, 2023), limiting broader geographic or temporal generalization.

Provenance

Source

Department of the Interior, U.S. Geological Survey, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center.

Collection Method

Portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis conducted on sediment samples using a Bruker S1 Titan instrument.

Time Range

2023

Freshness

Data was last updated on 2026-01-22, and the underlying measurements are from 2023.

Geography

U.S. Army Base Fort Drum, Jefferson County, New York, USA.