Analyses were conducted in 2026 to examine glaciolacustrine rhythmic laminations interpreted as annual layers (varves) in a suite of two sediment drill cores collected from Sheffield, Massachusetts in 2010. The dataset includes results from portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF), particle size analysis (PSA), visible (color) and near-infrared spectrophotometry, and magnetic susceptibility, along with high-resolution line-scan images of the cores.
The cores described in this dataset, named "SA" (Sheffield - core A) and "SHB" (Sheffield - core B), are 85 feet and 87 feet in total length, respectively. SA comprises 34 segments that are each 3.5 inches in diameter, and SHB comprises 35 segments that are each 2.5 inches in diameter. Each segment is 2.5 feet in length. Each core segment was split following collection in 2010 and subsequently archived. In 2026, laboratory work was conducted on the core at the USGS Florence Bascom Geoscience Center (FBGC) in Reston, VA using instrumentation housed in the Bascom Multi-Sensor Core Logger Laboratory and the Bascom Laser Diffraction Sedimentology Laboratory. The cores were analyzed at resolution of 1cm using a GeoTek multi-sensor core logger, imaged using a high-resolution line-scan core imaging system, and subsampled for PSA that was completed using a Beckman Coulter LS 13 320 XR laser diffraction particle size analyzer.
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