An overview of the LAM-MC-ICP MS national facility: prospects and priorities. PD-3-1

Unraveling the complex history of earth and other planetary bodies is a fundamental challenge to all earth scientists. Trace element distributions and isotopic variations in terrestrial rocks and minerals, materials from the Moon, and other inaccessible parts of the Universe as represented in meteorites hold the key to understanding many planetary and earth processes. At the same time, high precision isotopic data on samples of the Earth's hydrosphere and biosphere are important to understanding Man's habitat and environment. The fact that these natural processes operate on a range of scales in space and time necessitates isotopic composition measurements of many responsive and geochemically distinct trace elements including several naturally radioactive parent and radiogenic daughter isotope systems with half-lives between 103-1015 years and isotopes of many non-radiogenic (stable) elements as well. This article forms a brief introduction to the instrumentation, capabilities and some current priority projects of the Laser Ablation Microprobe (LAM)-Multicollector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (MC-ICP MS) National Facility