Facilities

Our research group operates two Class 350 clean rooms, one dedicated to chemistry, the other predominantly an instrument lab. Chemical separation and mass spectrometry procedures have been established for the isotopic analysis of many elements of interest e.g., Cu, Zn, Rb, Sr, Nd, Sm, Lu, Hf, Pb, Th and U. In addition, full trace element characterisation can be performed by quad ICPMS.

The core analytical instrumentation comprises a Nu Plasma ‘second generation’MC-ICPMS (Nu Instruments, U.K) and the new Varian high sensitivity quadrupole ICPMS (Varian Australia). Both are coupled to 193nm excimer laser ablation systems – termed ‘HelEx’ –custom built by colleagues at the ANU in a collaboration between ANU Geology, ANU Research School of Earth Sciences, and Melbourne University.

Other equipment available within the group includes a state-of-the art melt inclusion facility based around a modified ‘Vernadsky’ heating stage, mineral separation, microscopy, and micro-drilling equipment. As members of the School of Earth Sciences researchers also have access to a wide range of other instrumentation and techniques including SEM, electron probe, Ar-Ar geochronology, U-Th-He thermochronology, fission track etc… and further facilities (e.g. TIMS) are available under the VIEPS umbrella.