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2013 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

The Noble Gases as Geochemical Tracers: History and Background

Authors : Pete Burnard, Laurent Zimmermann, Yuji Sano

Published in: The Noble Gases as Geochemical Tracers

Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg

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Abstract

This chapter describes the discovery of the noble gases and the development of the first instrumentation used for noble gas isotopic analysis before outlining in very general terms how noble gases are analysed in most modern laboratories. Most modern mass spectrometers use electron impact sources and magnetic sector mass filters with detection by faraday cups and electron multipliers. Some of the performance characteristics typical of these instruments are described (sensitivity, mass discrimination). Extraction of noble gases from geological samples is for the most part achieved by phase separation, by thermal extraction (furnace) or by crushing in vacuo. The extracted gases need to be purified and separated by a combination of chemical and physical methods. The principles behind different approaches to calibrating the mass spectrometers are discussed.

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Title: The Noble Gases as Geochemical Tracers: History and Background
Authors: Pete Burnard
Laurent Zimmermann
Yuji Sano
Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
Book: The Noble Gases as Geochemical Tracers
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-28835-7

Electronic ISBN: 978-3-642-28836-4

Copyright Year: 2013
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-28836-4_1

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