School of Earth Sciences, Leeds University

Facilities - Geochronology Laboratories

Analyses for dating and, mainly radiogenic, isotope tracer studies including  Rb-Sr and U-Pb systems.
 

Sample preparation facilities:

Rock crushing and mineral separation by magnetic, heavy liquid and hand picking.
Microscope stage-mounted drill for extraction of sub-millimetre microsamples from thin section. Photo of microdrill in action

Chemistry laboratories:

 
Facilities include labs for sample decomposition and element separation by ion exchange with separate clean labs for U-Pb and micro-scale Rb-Sr sample processing. Enriched isotopic spikes for a wide range of elements including U and Pb double spikes for isotope dilution determination of concentrations. During 2002 a major upgrade of the clean laboratories has been undertaken.
Loading Sr samples in the clean lab
 Photo of filament loading

Mass spectrometers:

 
Thermal ionisation mass spectrometers -
In July 2002 a new state of the art multicollector TIMS (Finnigan-MAT TRITON) has been installed. This is capable of highest precision Sr, Pb and Nd measurements coupled with the high abundance sensitivity needed for U-series analysis.
The older Micromass30 is used predominantly for rubidium and chlorine analysis.  

Contact: Bob Cliff (telephone: 35223 / 35239) 
photo of Triton


 
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