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If you are student looking for a thesis project or an internship, please get in touch
with Prof. Nele Meckler.
Are you interested in analyzing fluid inclusions in your own speleothem samples? To be suitable for microthermometric analyses the speleothems (preferably stalagmites or flowstones) must have formed at temperatures greater than 9 °C, and they must contain monophase fluid inclusions of appropriate size (ideally > 20-30 μm in the largest dimension). We recommend the preparation of thick sections of 100-200 μm for petrographic analyses of the calcite fabric and of the fluid inclusions (size, distribution, monophase or two-phase, isolated or interconnected, intra- or inter-crystalline).
Based on our experience so far, the method works most reliably in stalagmites with a columnar calcite fabric that forms large up to cm-wide composite crystals of nearly uniform crystallographic orientation. This type of calcite fabric can easily be recognized from the blocky appearance of fracture planes indicating the calcite cleavage directions. However, in the context of the FluidMICS we are also interested in evaluating the suitability of other speleothem calcite fabrics for fluid inclusion microthermometry.
Further information about sample selection and preparation is provided in our tutorial video Sample selection and preparation.
Fluid inclusion microthermometry is a rather time-consuming method. It takes about 2 days to acquire and process the data for one temperature data point. For this reason, we cannot provide a service for fluid inclusion analyses but instead encourage interested colleagues to visit our lab to do the measurements under our guidance.
Questions? Please contact Yves Krüger (lab manager) or Prof. Nele Meckler (group leader).