58089 The Development of a Portuguese Database of Soils for Forensic Applications.

See more from this Division: Third International Soil Forensics Conference
See more from this Session: Soil Forensic Oral Presentations: III
Thursday, November 4, 2010: 11:00 AM
Hyatt Regency Long Beach, Regency Ballroom DEF, Third Floor
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Alexandra Guedes1, Helena Ribeiro2, Bruno Valentim2, Andreia Rodrigues2, Sara Leal2, Rita Lamas2, Helena Sant'Ovaia2 and Fernando Noronha2, (1)Centro de Geologia e DGAOT da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
(2)Centro de Geologia e DGAOT da Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal
In the framework of the project PTDC/CTE-GEX/67442/2006 (Science and Technology Foundation, Portugal) a database of soils for forensic purposes is being developed in collaboration with the Portuguese Scientific Police. For this purpose, soil samples have been collected and analyzed by a combination of geoforensic techniques, and the following properties studied: colour (spectrophotometry), particle size distribution (laser granulometry), chemical composition (ICP-MS), low-field magnetic susceptibility (susceptibility meter), and mineralogy (optical microscopy and micro-Raman spectroscopy). The ability of these properties to allow the discrimination between samples and sites, as well as the influence of the surrounding lithology in such discrimination was investigated. It is expected that this database will be useful in the future providing soil forensic intelligence to crime investigations.
See more from this Division: Third International Soil Forensics Conference
See more from this Session: Soil Forensic Oral Presentations: III