Instruments and Facilities

Our analytical facilities include five mass spectrometric systems. Two of these systems are fully automated for large throughput of high-precision tritium and He isotope measurements. The third, semi-automated system is used as a multi-purpose noble gas machine. It is used for measurements of noble gases in groundwater and in rocks (He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe). A fourth system is currently under development and is going to be used for ultra low-level noble gas measurements of speleothem samples. A fifth mass spectrometric system is used for Ar/Ar dating.
In addition to the mass spectrometric systems, we also have four gas chromatographic systems. These gas chromatographic system are used for measurements of deliberately-injected SF6, environmental levels of SF6 in groundwater and ocean water, and CFC's and SF6 in the atmosphere.