The Society offers a monthly series of Skills and Training events.
Register here for an upcoming event (19 August 2025): Accessing analytical resources through the National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF)
The National Environmental Isotope Facility (NEIF) is an integrated platform of state‐of‐the‐art isotope and organic geochemistry analytical capabilities and expertise, hosted by the British Geological Survey, the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre, the University of Bristol and the University of Oxford. NEIF supports a wide range of activities, including pilot studies to demonstrate feasibility, student training and analyses, through to large research grants and programmes across topics ranging from geochronology and isotopic tracers to environmental and life science. This talk will provide an overview of the facilities clustered under NEIF, and the ways in which UK-based researchers can access them.
Register here for an upcoming event (21 October 2025): The versatility of ICP Analysis, an Earth Science-focused introduction, by Sam Hammond and Barbara Kunz, Open University.
ICP instruments are relatively common in Earth and Environmental science analysis, allowing the measurement of major, minor and trace element concentrations, and isotopic ratios of a wide variety of materials from rocks, soils, waters, through to biological tissues, chemical experiments, nano-technologies and more. In this seminar we will provide an overview of ICP instruments and analysis, with a specific focus on quadrupole ICP-MS instruments used for trace element analysis. The versatility of ICP instruments are one of their strengths, however, there are also pitfalls to be avoided in order to achieve the best quality analysis. We will also discuss some specific analytical strategies, and show how we in our lab at the Open University ensure data quality.
New date to be announced: Advances and applications in carbonate geochronology by Nick Roberts, BGS
In situ U-Pb dating of carbonates using LA-ICP-MS (Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry) has become a widely applied method in the last decade, in part due to the ubiquity of carbonate minerals in a range of geological settings and lithologies, as well as the large number of laboratories with suitable instrumentation. Here I will review the method, from the basics of LA-ICP-MS through to the requirements specific to carbonates. I will discuss common issues to obtaining and interpreting reliable U-Pb data. Carbonate dating is applicable across a wide breadth of geoscience, and I will demonstrate a range of examples and case studies to explore the extensive possibilities. I will also discuss current issues and future directions.
Recordings of some of the presentations will be posted here after the event. See the links below.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||