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3584155 
Journal Article 
Tests of the correlation between composition and morphology of tremolite from Montgomery County, Maryland, USA 
Sanchez, MS; Gunter, ME 
2008 
1 
Periodico di Mineralogia
ISSN: 0369-8963 
77 
2 
15-25 
WOS:000259238200003 
Polished thin sections were prepared of a sample of tremolite from Montgomery County, Maryland and analyzed for major and trace elements of the prismatic and fibrous morphologies. Chemical data were obtained using EPMA (major element), laser ablation ICP-MS (trace element), XRF (whole rock), and the Fe3+/Sigma Fe ratio was determined by Mossbauer spectroscopy. The polished thin sections were observed with a polarized light microscope (PLM) and photographed to show the textural relationships between the prismatic and fibrous amphiboles. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed that the sample is a relatively pure tremolite with only traces of clinochlore occurring in the sample. The variation of major elements in the prismatic crystals is less than the variation among the fibrous portion, while the variability in the level of trace elements is greater for the prismatic crystals than the fibrous portion. Multivariate hierarchal cluster analysis was performed in an attempt to correlate composition to morphology. Using the major elements obtained by EPMA, no clustering occurred, while the trace elements obtained from laser ablation ICP-MS, yielded a separation based on morphology. 
tremolite; morphology; composition; asbestiform; nonasbestiform