Re: Dissaggregation

[Andrew MacRae <macrae@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

|police I think that kerosene is the way to go.  I used quaternary-o
|for a little while but discontinued it even prior to it being pulled
|from the market because it dissolved many of the more delicate
|calcareous foraminifera.  Jean-Pierre Guilbault in Montreal recently told
|me that he did an experiment with quaterary-o and found similar results.

	Yes, Quaternary-O is slightly acidic -- at least, it *will* etch  
phosphatic material (e.g., conodonts) if it is used "plain".  Charles  
Henderson, the conodont worker here at U of Calgary, adds sodium acetate  
to the Quat-O solution to buffer the reaction.  This prevents any  
corrosion from occurring.  If phosphate will react with plain Quat-O, you  
can bet that forams with calcium carbonate will :-)



	-Andrew
	macrae@geo.ucalgary.ca
	home page: "http://geo.ucalgary.ca/~macrae/current_projects.html";