Erlangen 2018 – scientific programme
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UP: Fachverband Umweltphysik
UP 8: Methods - measurement techniques; Atmosphere - trace gases, mesosphere
UP 8.1: Talk
Wednesday, March 7, 2018, 14:00–14:15, G 1.011
New markets for an old tracer: Applications for 39Ar dating with Argon Trap Trace Analysis (ArTTA) — •Arne Kersting1, Sven Ebser2, Zhongyi Feng2, Lisa Ringena2, Maximilian Schmidt2, Florian Ritterbusch2, Philip Hopkins1, Viola Rädle1, Stefan Beyersdorfer1, Markus K. Oberthaler2, and Werner Aeschbach1 — 1Institut für Umweltphysik, Heidelberg, Germany — 2Kirchhoff-Institut für Physik, Heidelberg, Germany
The potential of 39Ar as a dating tool has long been recognized in the geoscience community. As noble gas it is not influenced by chemical or biological processes and with a half-life of 269 years it closes the dating gap between young tracers (3H, CFCs, SF6) and 14C. Still, its application was hindered by its extremely low isotopic abundance making the low-level counting laboratory in Bern the only facility performing routine measurements of 39Ar. Requiring 1000 L of water this application is mainly restricted to groundwater studies. Recent developments in the atom counting method Argon Trap Trace Analysis (ArTTA), reduced the required sample size for 39Ar analysis down to a minimum of 1 mL STP of pure argon corresponding to a few kg of water or ice. The measurement time per sample is one day and the current construction of a second apparatus will double the throughput soon. This apparatus will for the first time render applications of the tracer 39Ar in oceanography, glaciology and limnology feasible, while reducing the effort for groundwater analysis significantly. In the scope of this talk an overview of already performed field campaigns is given as well as an outlook on the potential for future studies.