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WELCOME

Welcome to the SUERC Clumped Isotope Laboratory (CIL) pages. In addition to isotope ratios, we use precise measurements of the abundance of isotopologues bearing several heavy isotopes to study a variety of natural systems.

We are the newest research group at SUERC, dedicated to the establishment and development of clumped isotope geochemistry and their application to geochemical inquiry.

But what are clumped isotopes? While classical stable isotope measurements rely on the ratios of heavy to light elements in an analyte, clumped isotopes rely on the grouping of heavy isotopes in naturally occurring molecular species. One of the first, and to this day the most common, applications is the measurement of clumped isotopes in carbonates as a proxy for the temperature of formation of these minerals.

The laboratory is equipped with two mass spectrometers, one dedicated to clumped isotopes in CO2 and carbonates and one of the few ultra high resolution mass spectrometers worldwide for methane and light alkanes.

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