Development of a new clumped isotope proxy of carbonates for paleotemperature reconstruction

2017 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K12196
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Environmental dynamic analysis
• Research Institution: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology
• Principal Investigator: SAKAI Saburo 国立研究開発法人海洋研究開発機構, 生物地球化学研究分野, 技術研究員 (90359175)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
• Keywords: レーザー分光 / レアアイソトープ / 古水温

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The abundance of 13C-18O-18O carbon dioxide, contains heavy isotopes 13C and 18O, has a "strong" dependence on the temperature of which CO2 produced, therefore this could be used as a new clumped isotope themometer. The porpuse of this study is to develop a mid-infrared laser spectroscopy system which includes 13C18O18O absorption spectra. As a result, detection of the absorption line with 10E-25 intensity level, which is equivalent to 13C18O18O absorption line of the natural abundance, could measure with high repeatability although required calcium carbonate amount is several mg. Therefore, 13C18O18O detection may be possible by using a quantum cascade laser with an appropriate wavelength region.

Free Research Field

同位体地球化学