2D + Photon energy level Measurements of a Historical Artifact

Moche Cast Image
The test 3D volume was acquired by a scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDS). The imaged object was an artifact from Peru, the Moche Cast figure. The scanning process yielded a 3D volume with about 236 billion pixels. The 3D dimensions are 11,520 x 9,984 x 2048 pixels with 16 bits per pixel. The dimensions correspond to 2048 wavelength frames of spatial 2D image information. Each pixel corresponds to 0.9 micrometers in x and y dimensions, and the acquisition of all pixels took 51.2 hours. Given the data, material scientists can match peaks along the wavelength dimensions to material elements and hence determine the presence or absence of them at any spatial location based on the front and side views of this 3D volume.