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The Rapid Preparation of Seawater ΣCO2 for Radiocarbon Analysis at the National Ocean Sciences Ams Facility

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2016

A.P. McNichol ,
G. A. Jones ,
D. L. Hutton ,
A. R. Gagnon  and
R. M. Key
A.P. McNichol
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
G. A. Jones
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
D. L. Hutton
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
A. R. Gagnon
Affiliation:
Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Woods Hole, Massachusetts 02543 USA
R. M. Key
Affiliation:
Department of Geological and Geophysical Sciences, Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 08544 USA
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Abstract

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We have established a laboratory for extracting ΣCO2 from seawater samples for AMS analysis of the radiocarbon content. The seawater samples are collected at sea, poisoned and stored until analysis in the laboratory. Each sample is acidified; the inorganic carbon is stripped out as CO2 with an inert carrier gas and then converted to graphite. We present results for Buzzards Bay surface H2O and Na2CO3 standards that demonstrate we strip >98% of inorganic carbon from seawater. Stable isotope analyses are performed to better than 0.2‰, and the reproducibility of 14C measurements on Buzzards Bay seawater is better than 13‰. Finally, we compare data from samples collected in 1991 to those collected in the 1970s and to large volume samples.

Type
Articles
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , 1994 , pp. 237 - 246
Copyright
Copyright © The American Journal of Science 

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