MAT253Plus and Kiel IV
Thermo Fisher Scientific 253 IRMS, with Kiel IV carbonate preparation device
Main content
Two identical systems are set up for clumped isotope analyses. These instruments have been acquired with funding from the Trond Mohn Foundation, the European Research Council, and the Norwegian Research Council. Measurements yield δ18O, δ13C, and δ47, needed to calculate 𝛥47 (excess abundance of doubly substituted carbonate, relative to stochastic). The Kiel devices are equipped with custom-made purification columns for organic contaminants. In FARLAB, we focus on minimizing sample size, important when using material like fossil foraminifera from marine sediment cores. The Kiel device allows automated individual processing of small (~100 µg) sample aliquots. A number of these are then averaged to obtain a temperature estimate. Aliquots can be splits of a bigger sample, or taken from individual samples (e.g., sediment layers).
