Portable CT Scanner Examines Earth Core Samples

Roland Piquepaille writes "Scientists from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have built the worldâ(TM)s first x-ray computed tomography (CT) scanner able to look at core samples directly from remote drilling sites, thus eliminating the previous needs to send the samples to laboratories. Barry Freifeld, a mechanical engineer in Berkeley Lab's Earth Sciences Division, and his team, built a refrigerator-sized, 300-kilogram scanner and they installed it on the JOIDES Resolution Drill Ship operated by the Ocean Drilling Program. The scanner has so far traveled to the Oregon coasts and Prudhoe Bay in Alaska, analyzing more than 2,000 feet of core samples. Now, it's scheduled for another trip from Bermuda to Newfoundland. You'll find more details in this summary."

Comments

Re:Lens?

[Viadd]

Is this some crude kind of X-ray lens?

No, it's just to reduce the flux from the beams of X-rays that just graze the periphery of the core sample. That way the detector doesn't have to be robust enough to accurately measure the full unattenuated X-ray beam while also being sensitive enough to measure the few photons that pass through the full diameter of the core.

Everything is straight-line optics without any refraction or reflection.

Re:World Tour!

[terpia]

As far as I know, Oregon only has one coast.. Perhaps thy're counting the Columbia river which is basically the Northern border of the state.