Abstract
Accurate determinations have been made of the distribution of uranium in fresh and diagenetically altered coral skeletons occurring both naturally and grown under a variety of experimental conditions. Whereas live coral skeletons are homogeneous in uranium distribution, dead skeletons show heterogeneities relating to lithothamnioid algal encrustations and endolithic sponges. In the analyses of over 100 live coral skeletons, no zonal uranium distributions, described by previous workers, were found. In skeletons, free from organic material, uranium was found to exchange readily with the coral skeleton and/or to be precipitated along trabecular axes and skeletal margins. Bioeroded specimens contained higher uranium concentrations than freshly formed aragonite; they were similar to fossil coral skeletons used by previous researchers for uranium scrics dating.
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Swart, P.K., Hubbard, J.A.E.B. Uranium in scleractinian coral skeletons. Coral Reefs 1, 13–19 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286535
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00286535