Vibrational spectroscopy is used in Earth science for both quantitative and qualitative analysis. This report focuses on infrared (IR) spectroscopy, although similar efforts are on-going in Raman spectroscopy.

Qualitative studies utilize the fact that the vibrational spectrum is a characteristic of a material: hence comparison to a set of standards allows for identification of the phase. Most of these types of studies in Earth science involve macrosamples, but measurements of microsamples from meteorites are on interest in order to identify the structure of SiC inclusions and the type of organic compounds in interplanetary dust. As most of these samples are micron sized, which is below the diffraction limit for the mid-IR, the approach has been to compress the sample using a diamond anvil cell (DAC) into a disk of sub-micron thickness, adhere the sample to a KBr plate, and to subsequently remove the disk from the DAC and obtain spectra with the aid of an FTIR microscope.