Submission Type
Poster
Start Date
April 2020
Abstract
In the mid 1800’s and into the early 1900’s, Standish, NY was the site of a blast furnace, which extracted iron from the local Adirondack ores. Over the course of 100 years of industrial activity, this forge left behind a large 60 ft tall pile of slag, a byproduct of the smelting processes. This research aimed to better understand the variety of phases present at the site as well as products associated with weathering. Though there are a variety of slag types found in the Standish slag pile, all are chemically dominated by CaO and SiO2. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) of numerous samples from Standish indicate that there is phase homogeneity throughout the site and that materials like glass, gehlenite, pseudowollastonite, and quartz dominate the unweathered material. In some highly eroded and fissile slag samples, calcite is an additional phase. Many samples at the site are coated with a layer of white powder that is composed of a mixture of Ca-rich phases. XRD analyses of slag samples exposed to laboratory leaching experiments with nitric acid indicate that calcite is the dominant phase lost in multiple samples. Overall, the breakdown of the Ca-silicates dominates the weathered products at the site.
Recommended Citation
Kelk, Rachel and Farthing, Dori, "366— Mineralogical Analysis of Iron Slag from Standish, NY" (2020). GREAT Day Posters. 48.
https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/great-day-symposium/great-day-2020/posters-2020/48
Included in
366— Mineralogical Analysis of Iron Slag from Standish, NY
In the mid 1800’s and into the early 1900’s, Standish, NY was the site of a blast furnace, which extracted iron from the local Adirondack ores. Over the course of 100 years of industrial activity, this forge left behind a large 60 ft tall pile of slag, a byproduct of the smelting processes. This research aimed to better understand the variety of phases present at the site as well as products associated with weathering. Though there are a variety of slag types found in the Standish slag pile, all are chemically dominated by CaO and SiO2. Powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) of numerous samples from Standish indicate that there is phase homogeneity throughout the site and that materials like glass, gehlenite, pseudowollastonite, and quartz dominate the unweathered material. In some highly eroded and fissile slag samples, calcite is an additional phase. Many samples at the site are coated with a layer of white powder that is composed of a mixture of Ca-rich phases. XRD analyses of slag samples exposed to laboratory leaching experiments with nitric acid indicate that calcite is the dominant phase lost in multiple samples. Overall, the breakdown of the Ca-silicates dominates the weathered products at the site.
Comments
Sponsored by Amy Sheldon
This poster was selected to be presented at the Geological Society of America Northeastern- Southeastern Joint Section Meeting hosted in Reston, VA March 2020.