Minerals group components

Vibrational spectroscopy provides information on the functional groups present in the mineral and organic matrix components of hard tissues, as well as their molecular neighborhood [2,3]. The mineralized tissue components and properties that can be easily determined through both Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) or Raman spectroscopic analysis and their biological significance are as follows ... 

For crystals with molecule-like constituents, like the BO, " and BO4 " groups in some borates, semi-quantitative models of the molecular component as a gas-phase entity have been proposed (Oi et al. 1989). This is conceptually similar to the approximation made for species in solution, although in practice most studies of crystals consider additional frequencies that reflect inter-molecular vibrations. The spectroscopic data on these vibrations (which typically have lower frequencies than the intra-molecular vibrations) are often available, at least approximately, from infrared and Raman spectroscopy and elastic properties. This type of hybrid molecule-in-crystal model has been applied to many minerals in theoretical studies of carbon and oxygen isotope fractionation, the most noteworthy being studies of calcite (Bottinga 1968 Chacko et al. 1991) and sihcates (Kieffer 1982). Because specfroscopic dafa are always incomplete (especially for subsfances substifufed wifh rare isolopes), some amounl of vibralional modeling is necessary. 

Key components of the model used in exploration for these deposits include 1) the presence of an angular unconformity between a Paleoproterozoic sandstone basin and older graphite-bearing metasedimentary and plutonic basement rocks, 2) post-Athabasca Group structural disruption, and 3) the presence of mineralization and mineralization-related hydrothermal alteration. 

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