Cosmogenic Nuclide Laboratory

During the last decades, cosmogenic nuclides have become an useful tool for measuring surface processes in geomorphology and analysing the feedbacks between climate and tectonic that interact to shape the landscape. Numerous applications like exposure dating, burial dating or reconstructing landscape changes by cosmogenic nuclide-derived denudation rates are now possible. Especially cosmogenic nuclide-derived denudation rates integrate erosion as well as weathering processes. For futher information on the method please see the link below: von_Blankenburg (2005), Earth and Planetary Science Letter.

The cosmogenic nuclide laboratory supervised by Prof. Todd Ehlers and Dr. Mirjam Schaller provides all methods for cosmogenic nuclide analysis. In the first step bedrock material, river sediment and soil samples are pre-treated. From sieved samples, minerals are separated by magnetic separation and/or heavy liquids. Silicate and oxide minerals are chemically separated from quartz by leaching with acids (HF, HCl, HNO3). The treatment includes purification steps to obtain pure quartz, such as dissolution and element separation by ion chromatography column chemistry. The clean lab procedure is based on the method developed by GFZ Potsdam. For further information on the clean lab protocol please see: Clean_lab_protocol_BECOOK_Tuebingen_v150601

Currently, cosmogenic isotopes of ¹⁰Be and ²⁶Al are extracted routinely in the laboratory. The samples are measured in cooperation with the AMS facilities at the University of Cologne (http://www.cologneams.uni-koeln.de/2465.html) and  ETH Zuerich (http://www.ams.ethz.ch/).