Volume Measurements of Laser-generated Pits for In Situ Geochronology using KArLE (Potassium-Argon Laser Experiment).

Author:: Cohen, B. A.
Published:: March 17, 2014.
Physical Description:: 1 electronic document
Additional Creators:: French, R. A. and Miller, J. S.

Online Version

hdl.handle.net , Connect to this object online.

Availability

Finding items...

Restrictions on Access:

Unclassified, Unlimited, Publicly available.
Free-to-read Unrestricted online access

Summary:

The Potassium-Argon Laser Experiment( KArLE), is composed of two main instruments: a spectrometer as part of the Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) method and a Mass Spectrometer (MS). The LIBS laser ablates a sample and creates a plasma cloud, generating a pit in the sample. The LIBS plasma is measured for K abundance in weight percent and the released gas is measured using the MS, which calculates Ar abundance in mols. To relate the K and Ar measurements, total mass of the ablated sample is needed but can be difficult to directly measure. Instead, density and volume are used to calculate mass, where density is calculated based on the elemental composition of the rock (from the emission spectrum) and volume is determined by pit morphology. This study aims to reduce the uncertainty for KArLE by analyzing pit volume relationships in several analog materials and comparing methods of pit volume measurements and their associated uncertainties.

Other Subject(s):

Lunar and Planetary Science and Exploration

Collection:

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) Collection.

Note:

Document ID: 20140008697.
M14-3425.
Lunar and Planetary Science Conference; 17-21 Mar. 2014; The Woodlands, Texas; United States.

Terms of Use and Reproduction:

View MARC record | catkey: 15425942