A Cristallographic and Textural Perspective of Aging and Diagenetic Degradation of Mechanical Properties on Hard Malacological Paleo-Tissues

R.E. BOLMARO; M. BAYER; G. A. DUARTE; N. S. DE VINCENTIS; S. GORDILLO

San Diego

Simposio; TMS2011; 2011

The Minerals, Metals and Materials Society

Sea shells of different species are characterized by X-ray diffraction, micro- indentation tests and electron scanning microscopy. A few samples of Amiantis and Prototaca collected on holocenic and pleistocenic deposits on the Argentine sea costs were tested in search of crystallographic modifications and mechanical strength degradation in comparison with identical species modern individuals. X ray diffraction was used to look for aragonite replacement by its more stable calcite structure and possible variations on the known highly oriented orientation distribution. On the same samples the strength was evaluated by micro- indentation and the results were correlated with the microscopic observations.