Noble Gas Mass Spectrometry in Earth and Planetary Sciences.

Noble gases are very rare elements in most relevant samples in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. Noble gases may perhaps also look rather boring to chemists, as they do not form any stable compounds. However, it is just their rarity and chemical inertness which makes noble gases versatile elements in a very wide range of fields, such as oceanography, climatology, environmental sciences, meteorite studies, rock dating, early solar system and early Earth history, and many others.

Elemental abundances of major elements in the solar wind as measured in Genesis targets and implications on solar wind fractionation.

We present elemental abundance data of C, N, O, Na, Mg, Al, Ca, and Cr in Genesis silicon targets. For Na, Mg, Al, and Ca, data from three different SW regimes are also presented. Data were obtained by backside depth profiling using Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry.

Noble gases in cluster chondrite clasts and their host breccias.

We measured noble gases in "cluster chondrite clasts" from nine unequilibrated ordinary chondrites (UOCs). For five meteorites, we also present data for so-called "clastic matrix," the impact-brecciated material in which the angular to subrounded cluster chondrite clasts are often embedded. Cluster chondrite clasts are characterized by close-fit texture of deformed and indented chondrules with lower amounts of fine-grained interchondrule matrix than in other UOCs (Metzler 2012).

Lifetimes of interstellar dust from cosmic ray exposure ages of presolar silicon carbide.

We determined interstellar cosmic ray exposure ages of 40 large presolar silicon carbide grains extracted from the Murchison CM2 meteorite. Our ages, based on cosmogenic Ne-21, range from 3.9 ± 1.

Neon isotopes in individual presolar low-density graphite grains from the Orgueil meteorite.

We present He and Ne isotopes of individual presolar graphite grains from a low-density separate from Orgueil. Two grain mounts were analyzed with the same techniques but in a different sequence: The first one was measured with NanoSIMS followed by noble gas mass spectrometry, and the second one in reverse order. No grain contained He and only one grain on the second mount contained He.

Solar wind neon from Genesis: implications for the lunar noble gas record.

Lunar soils have been thought to contain two solar noble gas components with distinct isotopic composition. One has been identified as implanted solar wind, the other as higher-energy solar particles. The latter was puzzling because its relative amounts were much too large compared with present-day fluxes, suggesting periodic, very high solar activity in the past.