Figure 4. Sampling sites of blue features. (a) Sample B5 from cave B. (b) Sample C2 from cave C. (c) Sample H1 from cave H. (d) Sample H7 from cave H.
3.2 Blue Sample Analysis
Blue features were found to have prominent copper enrichments with our portable XRF while sampling them. We thus grouped these into one study and analyzed them further with 16S rRNA gene sequencing methods, Raman spectroscopy, and SEM/EDS in an attempt to understand the cause for such high concentrations of copper in an environment where it is expected to be scarce. The analyses performed on each sample can be seen in Table 1.