Abstract

A sample of volcanic ashes emanated from the Osorno volcano, southern Chile, was characterized with X-ray fluorescence, X-ray diffraction and Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy, in an attempt to identify the iron-bearing minerals of that geologically recent magmatic deposit. X-ray patterns indicated that the sample is mainly constituted of anorthite, Fe-diopside-type and Ca-magnetite. The crystallographic structures of these dominant iron minerals are proposed on basis of their chemical composition and corresponding Mossbauer data to support models refined by fitting powder X-ray diffraction data with the Rietveld algorithm.