What it is and where it goes
Opened in the Fall of 2023, it is a complete rock prep and min sep facility and built for routine geochemical and geochronology analyses with two modern Quad ICPMS , an Excimer 193 Iridia Laser ablation system, an XRF and some other minor tools. It is under expansion in 2026 with the building of a clean laboratory, installation of new TIMS, triple quad ICP-MS, a high resolution sector ICP-MS and the prospect of a MC ICP-MS for next year. An enthusiastic team of 10 people are running it all/
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THE XRF
XRF
Used for silicate major elemental analyses for which it is primarily calibrated. Samples are crushed and then powdered in a shatterbox, followed by fusing in a Katanax machine with ultrapure flux. The homogenized disks are then measured by XRF for majors and passed onto the ICP-MS for trace elements.
MMIN SEP ROCK PREP
MIN SEP
Franz, Wiffley table, heavy liquids shatterbox, several binocular scopes, small jawcrusher for grinding samples down to powders or separating minerals for various analyses. Petrographic scope, Micromill for spatially controlled sampling, microdrill for cutting small disks from samples.
ICPMS
ICP-MS
Two Thermo ICAP generation (2023 and 2024 respectively) quadrupole ICP-MS that can be used in split stream mode, one is generally used for geochronology (U-PB of zircon, monazite, apatite and titanite) the other for trace elemental analyses.
LASER ABLATION
LASER ABLATION
The new Iridia 193 nm Excimer laser has multiple awesome qualities among them the ability to generate exceptional maps of trace elements on various mineral phases. We use it for in situ dating but also for a variety of mineral chemistry applications.