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The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution's National Ocean
Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility (NOSAMS) was
established in 1989 to process and analyze a large number of
small volume seawater samples (>13,700) collected as part of the
World Ocean Circulation Experiment (WOCE). An ongoing commitment
to automation and high-precision 14C AMS measurements has
allowed NOSAMS to successfully meet the goals of the WOCE
program while providing over 17,000 AMS radiocarbon results
(carbon dating ) to non-WOCE investigators from a wide variety
of carbon-bearing materials.
All of the formal WOCE program samples have been analyzed as of
the spring of 2002, and all Pacific and Indian Ocean data have
been released to the WOCE Hydrographic Office. The Atlantic
Ocean dataset is expected to be released by the summer of 2002.
AMS analyses are reported with a routine precision of below 4
per mil (thousand) on samples with a 14C content of more than 70
% of that of a modern sample.
NOSAMS accepts samples from all qualified research laboratories
and charges fees that vary according to the difficulty of
analysis and the nature of the project. Samples from federally
supported research programs receive the lowest rates. Overall,
the objective of this facility is to support research in all
studies of global change.
Website: "http://www.nosams.whoi.edu/"
[Summary provided by NOSAMS.]
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