Türler Andreas
Environmental Analysis and Dating with Radiocarbon using MICADAS
Project Number: 206021_133817
| Project Type: |
Research_Project |
| Project Duration: |
12/01/2010 - 11/30/2011 |
| Funding Source: |
SNSF , |
| Project Leader: |
Prof. Andreas Türler
Departement für Chemie und Biochemie
Universität Bern
Freiestr. 3
3012 Bern
Phone: +41 (0) 31 631 42 64 ; +41 (0) 31 631 42 43
FAX: +41 (0) 31 631 39 95
e-Mail: andreas.tuerler(at)dcb.unibe.ch
http://dcbwww.unibe.ch/dcb/titel.html |
Research Areas:
Disciplines:
| |
|---|
| geochemistry |
| physical chemistry |
| climatology, atmospheric physics, aeronomy |
| paleontology |
| hydrology, limnology, glaciology |
| geochronology |
| soil sciences |
Keywords:
radiocarbon, accelerator mass spectrometry, micadas, paleo environment, paleo climate, archeology, dating, compound-specific radiocarbon analysis (csra), hyphenated techniques, 14c, paleoenvironment, paleoclimate, compound-specific radiocarbon analysis
Abstract:
Radiocarbon (14C) is a long-lived radioisotope with widespread applications in many scientific branches. The University of Bern has a long history of experience in precise 14C measurements based on the conventional counting laboratory founded by Hans Oeschger more than 50 years ago. Due to the demanding procedure involved in preparing the counting gas from the organic samples and to the long counting time to obtain reliable statistics, the throughput and required carbon mass of this technique both are the limiting factors. Because the University of Bern decided to continue the high-precision 14C studies, an update of the facility is urgently needed accommodating an increasing number of 14C measurements requested by the various institutes or their collaborators. During the last two decades, enormous technical development on accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) has been achieved with the breakthrough of the small instrument MICADAS by ETH Zurich. This small unit can readily compete with the conventional counting method regarding precision but is significantly superior regarding its low requirements of sample amounts and process time. Therefore, a new 14C laboratory will be established at the University of Bern based on the AMS technique. For this, a dedicated MICADAS instrument will be set up in collaboration with ETH Zurich. In current work at many different institutes of the University of Bern, 14C analyses fundamentally contribute in manifold applications, such as atmospheric sciences, limnology, paleoclimatology, paleoecology, agroecology, biogeochemistry, and paleoenvironmental sciences. The installation of MICADAS will ensure the successful continuation of radiocarbon applications of high precision and an increased number of 14C determinations for internal and external projects creating the potential for innovative future projects. In many of these applications, investigation of bulk samples inevitably results in misinterpretations, if the samples are composed of materials from different sources or ages. Therefore, special emphasis is laid upon the investigation of specified sub-fractions of samples or even compound-specific radiocarbon analysis (CSRA) and the analytic-chemical development of hyphenated systems.
Source of Information: NF Import 2011
Last update: 5/23/16
Source of data: ProClim- Research InfoSystem (1993-2024)
Update the data of project: CH-206021_133817
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