May 2006 Meeting Abstract

"Metallurgical Slag: A Geological, Mineralogical, & Environmental Perspective"

The Buffalo Association of Professional Geologists (BAPG) is pleased to announce that its monthly dinner meeting will be held at the Millennium Airport Hotel, located at 2040 Walden Avenue in Cheektowaga on May 17^th, 2006. The topic of the dinner presentation and discussion will be: "Metallurgical Slag: A Geological, Mineralogical, & Environmental Perspective, presented by Dr. Dori Farthing, Assistant Professor, Department of Geological Sciences at SUNY Geneseo.

Metallurgical slag is the byproduct of metal processing, specifically smelting. After a successful smelting operation, the slag is usually dumped into large piles near the smelter and left to weather. In some places slag is occasionally recycled into subsequent smelting batches.

Slag has been studied extensively by metallurgists to determine a smelter's efficiency. Archaeologists have also studied slag to get a sense of our metallurgical past. Even N.L. Bowen studied slag in hopes to get a handle on crystallization sequences. Because it is a non-natural material, slag tends not to be the research subject for geologists. However, geologists are the best people to study this material. We already work with rocks that have crystallized from melts, we understand phase relationships, and we also have at our beck and call tools that are invaluable for the study of slag.

Transmission electron microscopy, electron microprobe analyses, X-ray spectroscopy, and traditional optical microscopy were used to investigate the stability of recent and archaeological slag. These techniques identified phases, determined the distribution of rare earth, radioactive, and/or toxic elements, and looked at textures that might indicate weathering or alteration. Understanding the mineralogy and elemental distribution among the individual phases was important for fully characterizing slag. Furthermore, information regarding the distribution and concentration of heavy elements, U, Th, and REE's among the phases, as well as the resistance to weathering of each phase was essential for assessing what might leach from the slag into adjacent soil and water.

Dori Farthing is an assistant professor in the Department of Geological Sciences at SUNY Geneseo. She earned her bachelor's from the College of Wooster (in 1995), and then spent a year in the Netherlands doing lead isotope research in association with a Fulbright Fellowship. Upon her return to the US, she began her graduate work at Johns Hopkins University where she earned both her Masters and Ph.D. Her graduate work investigated tin slag from Great Britain and also from sites associated with the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission. After her PhD work, she took a 3 year temporary teaching position at the University of Dayton, OH, where she taught mineralogy, hydrogeology, environmental geology, and physical geology. In 2004, she was delighted to be offered a tenure track position at SUNY Geneseo. In the summer of 2005, she expanded her slag research to include Adirondack slag and involved 5 undergraduate students in a variety of slag-related research projects. Along with her teaching and research passions, Dori is an avid singer and has even had the fortune to sing multiple times with jazz legend Dave Brubeck.

Michael Alfieri

BAPG President