Analytical Laboratory for Paleoclimate Studies

The Jackson School of Geosciences now has four stable isotope laboratories.  UTIG Director and DGS faculty member Terry Quinn supervises one of these labs — ALPS.   The ALPS houses two, state-of-the-science, Thermo isotope ratio mass spectrometers and an Inductively Coupled Plasma-spectrometer (ICP). Contact Terry Quinn for more information.

The first isotope ratio mass spectrometer is a dual inlet Thermo 253 with a Kiel IV carbonate device.  This instrument is dedicated to performing high-precision, high-throughput analyses of the stable isotopes of oxygen and carbon in carbonate samples (corals, foraminifer, speleothems), which are required to generate paleoclimate time series.  This instrument is capable of making 40 isotopic determinations of oxygen and carbon in a 24-hour period.  On an annual basis, ~8k isotopic determinations are made on this instrument.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The second isotope ratio mass spectrometer is a Thermo Delta V, which is configured in both dual inlet and continuous flow mode.  In the latter configuration, routine analyses of carbonates (18O, 13C; Gasbench), water (HD and 18O; TC/EA, Gasbench), organic material (C and N, EA; H and O TC/EA), and DIC (Gasbench) are performed.  It is anticipated that a second Kiel IV carbonate device will be acquired to facilitate the generation of additional paleoclimate time series.