Tephrochronology Laboratory
Staff
Director
Dr. Andrei Kurbatov
Research Goals
The University of Maine Ice core Microparticles and tephrochronology Laboratory is studying impact of volcanic eruptions on the Earth climate system. In particular our research involves work with microparticles of dust and tephra in ice samples extracted from ice cores. By using these data sets we can reconstruct global record of volcanism in conjunction with other geochemical and geochronological data. It allows us to evaluate how volcanic eruptions impact global climate changes.Equipment
In order to minimize contamination of samples all work is done under the hood with continues laminar air-flow. We are using a shallow hot water bath for fast melting of samples placed inside clean plastic containers. Centrifuge is used to drive the insoluble particles to the bottom of the tubes. All sample then aliquoted from the each tube with a pipette and placed onto glass slides. The slides are slowly heated to evaporate melt water, leaving any particles. Cover slips are secured using Canadian Balsam mounting fluid. To prevent non-volcanic glass shards from contaminating the sample, slides and cover plates are cleaned using pressurized air and brushes both before preparation of slides and prior to scanning with a petrographic Olympus BX40 microscope.
After preparing the slide, the remaining bulk melt water sample is filtered onto 25 mm diameter polycarbonate Nucleopore filter membranes with 0.2 µm porosity. Filters were placed into sterile petri dishes and allowed to dry under a laminar flow hood. This filter is used for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electron microprobe analysis
Olympus and Nuclepore are registered tradmearks.
Dr. Andrei Kurbatov
Climate Change Institute
University of Maine
136 Sawyer Environmental Research Center
Orono, ME 04469-5790
207-581-2840 Ph/Voicemail
207-581-1203 Fax
akurbatov at maine.edu