I offer a range of services to identify and characterize unclassified meteorites.
| Service | Costs |
| Laser fluorination triple oxygen isotope analyses | $850 |
| Electron microprobe mineral analyses & simple petrography | $400 |
Laser fluorination triple oxygen isotope analyses are the ‘gold standard’ to identify unknown meteorite types. The analytical method used (1) involves fluorination of silicates and cryogenic distillation of the product molecular oxygen. I use a ThermoFisher MAT 253 isotope ratio mass spectrometer. My latest research using these techniques can be found here (2).
Service costs include labor and consumables to process your sample(s), analytical time to measure the oxygen isotope composition of your sample(s) on the MAT 253 mass spectrometer, and the consumable costs for maintaining the laser fluorination system. You will receive three separate analyses of your sample(s), alongside the isotopic composition of the standard measured during the analytical session. Estimated labor time is approximately 75 minutes per analysis.
Current turn-around time is approximately 4-6 weeks. All requests enter a standard queue unless a rush is requested. Rush orders can be completed within a week of delivery with a +100% fee on all services.
Stable Isotope Geochemistry (3).
Additional services are offered to perform EPMA mineral analyses and collect petrographic imagery of your sample(s). This includes processing your sample (cutting or chipping), mounting and polishing an epoxy plug, and microscopy time.
You will receive the polished sample, in addition to approximately 15 major/minor element mineral compositions, and high resolution electron imagery. I use a JEOL 8200 electron microprobe housed in the Earth and Planetary Sciences department at the University of New Mexico.
Some references: (1) Sharp, Zachary D. “A laser-based microanalytical method for the in situ determination of oxygen isotope ratios of silicates and oxides.” Geochimica et cosmochimica acta 54.5 (1990): 1353-1357. (2) Gargano, Anthony M., et al. “Constraints on the impactor flux to the Earth–Moon system from oxygen isotopes of the lunar regolith.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 123.4 (2026): e2531796123. (3) Sharp, Zachary. “Principles of stable isotope geochemistry.” (2017) (https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/unm_oer/1/)