The development of geophysical exploration systems with high resolution for underground applications and mobile operation on the surface implicate many interesting problems to be solved with electronics. That is, design and programming of radio-controlled data acquisition systems as well as control systems for seismic impulse and vibrator sources. Another challenging task is the planning, installation and initial operation of electrode arrays in boreholes. For testing and optimization of the …

In the Gas Chromatography Lab whole oil analyzes are performed with special attention to saturated hydrocarbons, highly volatile organic compounds, and lipid fractions (e.g. fatty acids, alcohols, sterols).

The research done in section 3.1 demands precise and accurate analyses of element concentrations and isotope ratios in a wide range of materials (minerals, rocks, fluids and gas) and on samples as tiny as 1 micron in diameter and with just picograms (10-12 pg) in mass. This work involves a large number of instruments and dedicated laboratories.
The GFZ encourages external collaborations and the laboratories in section 3.1 are heavily used by research students and guest scientists. The …

Pre-treatment of river sediment and soil samples for cosmogenic isotope analyses (¹⁰Be, ²⁶Al) includes purification steps to obtain pure quartz sands prior to dissolution and element separation by ion chromatography column chemistry. From sieved samples, minerals are separated by magnetic separation and/or heavy liquids, and silicate and oxide minerals are chemically separated from quartz by leaching with acids (HF, HCl, HNO₃) at elevated temperatures.

One of four worldwide iridium-strip-heaters is located in our laboratory to create homogeneous glasses out of powder with short time and high temperature impact (~2000 °C).

Within HELGES, we have an ISO 6 metal-free clean laboratory, dedicated entirely to blank-sensitive metal(loid) geochemistry. Numerous ISO 4 laminar flow hoods are available for the preparation of wide-ranging sample substrates for non-traditional stable isotope and concentration analysis, along with other essential infrastructure like a centrifuge, ultrasonic bath, microbalance, hotplates etc. Protocols established in the lab include (but are not limited to) Li, B, Mg, Si, Fe, Sr, and Nd …

Microwave Digestion System: The microwave MLS Start can be used to digest samples to be analyzed by ICP-MS or ICP-OES. Special Teflon containers allow samples and acids to be heated at elevated pressures, and therefore temperatures above the atmospheric boiling point can be reached to facilitate chemical reactions during sample dissolution. A wide variety of samples can be digested using the microwave, e.g., plants, sediments, soils, rocks, water, human/animal tissue. The systems also allows …

In order to dissolve minerals from its compound that are suitable for radiometric dating and to get rid of their adhesions in the best possible way, the stone is ground several times with the jaw crusher and the roller mill. The minerals suitable for the chosen dating methodology are separated using density differences, magnetic properties and grain shape. Subsequently, the millbase is sieved; the finer grain fraction is of interest for further processing.
The Wilfley wet-shaking hearth …

In our high-pressure labs, we experimentally simulate the conditions ranging from the Earth’s crust to the deep mantle. The high-pressure labs include the hydrothermal laboratory, the internally heated pressure vessel (IHPV), the piston cylinder press, the multi-anvil press and the piston cylinder/multi anvil press. The High-Pressure Laboratories are a laboratory complex and consist of several sub-modules. For more details, please see the individual websites.

The hydrothermal laboratory is equipped with horizontal and vertical cold-seal pressure vessels for the synthesis of crystals or glasses or to study interactions between minerals/rocks, melts, and fluids at hydrostatic conditions. The hydrothermal lab comprises three lines: 200 MPa line, 500 MPa line and rapid quench line.