Mineralogy of the clay fraction of soils from the moray cusco archaeological site: a study by energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffractometry and Mössbauer spectroscopy

The purpose of this work is to report the advances in the elemental and structural characterization of the clay fraction of soils from the terraces of the Moray Archaeological site, located 38 km north of the city of Cusco, Cusco Region. One sample was collected from each of the twelve terraces of this site and its clay fraction was separated by sedimentation. Previously the pH of the raw samples was measured resulting that all of the samples were from alkaline to strongly alkaline. Energy dispersive X-ray fluorescence (EDXRF) was used for the elemental characterization, and X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and transmission Mössbauer spectroscopy (TMS), using the γ 14.4 keV nuclear resonance transition in 57Fe, were used for the structural characterization of the clays and clay minerals present in each sample. The EDXRF analyses of all the samples show the presence of relatively high concentrations of sulfur in some of the samples and relatively high concentrations of calcium in all of the samples, which may be related to the high alkalinity of the samples. By XRD it is observed the presence of quartz, calcite, gypsum, cronstedtite, 2:1 phyllosilicates, and iron oxides. The mineralogical analysis of Fe by TMS shows that it is present in the form of hematite and occupying Fe2 +  and Fe3 +  sites in phyllosilicates, cronstedtite, and other minerals not yet identified.