Stal Polishing

Previously on "My PhD", we went to Tumut to get several stalagmites cut.  Then we drilled little pieces out to analyse them on the Krystalloflex to check whether they were calcite or aragonite and also sent some samples off to be dated.  Over these couple of weeks I'm spending a few afternoons polishing the slabs we cut out the middle of the stalagmites.  This involves a polishing device which rotates different grade polishing things (or some such technical explanation, its late and I'm tired).  Its attached to a hose so fires high pressure water at the same time in that water and electricity mix that makes me nervous.  There are seven grades of polishing to get the slabs level and get rid of bumps and scratches and then to polish so that they are nice and smooth, and shiny even when dry.  It takes ages.  These three pieces took two and a half hours to polish both sides.  Its quite tiring because the machine is uncomfortable to use and the hose isn't that well connected so it occasionally comes off and sprays me in the face and gets me soaking wet.

 This is what the stal slabs look like before:

And this is what the stal looks life afterwards.  Actually it doesn't look much better in these pics I'll admit.  But it really is easier to see all the deatils, theres contrast and the layers are much sharper, and you can see more sub mm structures.  All of this is very good.

So we now can analyse the stal structure in more detail, we can tell better where things are going on such as changes in structure, hiatuses in stalagmite growth.  Having a level smooth slab also makes it easier to drill consistent powders down the middle when we get to that stage.  What I need now are some dates so I can work out exactly which of the collected stalagmites I need to use.  Unfortunatly this bit is outsourced to Melbourne. And so we wait.