Session: Undergraduate Research Posters: Analytical Chemistry:

The wind cave system represents a unique environment on Earth where the direct interplay of organic chemistry on the surface can possibly be traced to extremophiles living hundreds of meters below the surface. In many cases, minerals and organics from the surface become trapped in calcite formations creating fluorescent minerals. To understand the environment giving rise to the fluorescent minerals in Wind Cave, laboratory analogs of the calcite crystals found within the Wind Cave National Park cavern were synthesized and analyzed using SEM and fluorescence spectroscopy. This data was compared to the fluorescence and XRF data collected from speleothems in Wind Cave, and potential activators were identified for each speleothem analyzed. Synthetic crystals were doped with inorganic and organic activators, including organic aerosol activators and extracted tannins. The most common activators were Mn for red and pink fluorescence, the uranyl ion for bright green fluorescence, Fe and Mn for purple fluorescence, and organic activators for the lighter colors (white and light blue) of fluorescence found.

Joshua Sebree

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