Atlantic Universities Radiogenic Isotope Facility



 

Welcome to the Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometry machine lab
Pictured above is our Finnigan MAT 262V TI-mass spectrometer which arrived in February 1993.
It is state-of-the-art, with 8 Faraday collectors and SEM-ion counting system.
For those who wish to know, the person pictured in the next two photos is Pat Horan (ie; me).
 


 

I am pictured above running the 262 - probably heating up a Nd or Sr fraction before beginning an analysis.
Shown behind me is a class 100 loading box where we load our sample isotopic fractions onto rhenium filaments.
Luckily we have no pictures of me half inside the beast repairing it.
 

This shot shows me focusing the ion beam.
In the upper right corner you can see our 18 year old VG MM-30 TI-MS. (Yes it still works.)
Rubidium and common lead are analysed on this machine. Rubidium has a nasty habit of
"coating" (still debating over this) the faraday detectors.
So we naturally don't want to risk our 262.
 

This is part of the class 100 clean lab complex, these two hoods are "home" to
the atlantic universities radiogenic isotope chemistry facility. The entire complex
cannot be captured on film (it's too bloody big) so I show my spot.
Rocks (once dissolved of course) are separated into their elemental components through a complicated ion exchange process.
Once the rubidium, strontium, neodymium, samarium, lead and uranium are "isolated",
they are ready for analysis on one of the 2 TI mass spectometers (shown in the top three pictures).

Coming soon (hopefully) a picture of the U-Pb part of the clean lab with some of the people
that hang around in there. I seem to have trouble convincing those guys to pose for pictures! But that will change.


Facility Related Information

Greg Dunning, Associate Professor
Patricia Horan, Project Geochemist
Earth Sciences Department
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St.John's, NF, Canada A1B 3X5

tel: 1.709.737.8346
fax:1.709.737.2589


Radiogenic Isotope Analyses Available


Rubidium - Strontium Isotopic Analysis
Samarium and Neodymium Isotopic Analysis
Rubidium/Strontium - Samarium/Neodymium Isotopic Analysis

For more information on analyses, cost, and for sample submissions please email Pat Horan


Pat Horan's personal stuff

Personal Home Page
Page last modified 96.04.26
horan@sparky2.esd.mun.ca

 

 

Earth Sciences
Memorial University of Newfoundland