THE NEW LA-ICP-MS LAB FACILITY IN THE GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE AT BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES – FIRST RESULTS FROM TRACE ELEMENTS DETERMINATION AND U-PB AGE DATING OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS

11th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM2011, www.sgem.org, SGEM2011 Conference Proceedings/ ISSN 1314-2704, June 20-25, 2011, Vol. 1, 283-290 pp

ABSTRACT

The new lab facility at the Geological Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
was set up in the end of 2009. The main equipment consist a state of the art PerkinElmer
ELAN DRC-e ICP-MS and New Wave Research UP-193FX excimer laser ablation
system. Combined together, it is a precise instrument for geochemical research and
geochronology. One of the leading research topics is quantitative determination of trace
and ultra trace elements in rocks together with their age dating clarification. We report
our first results obtained with the new equipment to unravel the great opportunities for
usage in the field of the geological science. Our main efforts till now are in the field of
research directed to metamorphites including trace elements determination of bulk rock
samples from different rock types − metagranites, metapegmatites, metapelites,
orthoschists, and metabasites and in situ U-Pb age dating of zircons.

Keywords: LA-ICP-MS, metamorphites, geochronology, geochemistry, East Rhodopes