Images and laser ablation ICPMS data for Fe-Ni-Cu sulfides from Cabo Ortegal, northern Spain (NERC Grant NE/P017312/1)

Samples are dunites, harzburgites and pyroxenites with variable proportions of chromite from the Cabo Ortegal collection of the late Prof Hazel Prichard, that is held at Cardiff University. Data were acquired during 2021 and 2022. Folders include: reflected light microscopy images of various sulfide minerals and mineral textures in thin section; element maps and backscattered electron images of areas and selected complete thin sections; and metadata (time-resolved analysis spectral data) for laser ablation ICP-MS analysis of sulfide minerals. Petrographic assessment by element mapping used a Zeiss Sigma HD Field Emission Gun Analytical Scanning Electron Microscope (A-SEM) equipped with two Oxford Instruments 150 mm2 Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectrometry (EDS) detectors at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University. Operating conditions were set at 20kV and aperture size to 120 µm, with a nominal beam current of 4 nA and working distance of 8.9 mm. Using Aztec software, maps were acquired at 100 to 150 x magnifications, with resulting pixel sizes ranging from 10 to 22 µm, depending on the resolution of acquired spectral images. Laser-ablation ICPMS analyses were performed using a ESI UP213 laser system coupled to a Thermo iCAPRQ ICP-MS system at the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Cardiff University. The data were gathered to understand the concentrations of precious and semi-metal trace elements and their likely mineral forms in the various Fe-Ni-Cu sulfide minerals.