This project involves the development of a new technique for the efficient extraction of low levels of included gases from geological samples for subsequent mass-spectrometric analysis. Low-temperature (less than 250 degrees C.) oxygen plasmas will be used to oxidize samples, releasing gases such as the noble gases, helium, neon, argon, krypton, and xenon, whose istopic composition provides important information on the origin and evolution of the minerals carrying them. The low temperature of extraction will eliminate several sources of interference in current high- temperature (typically greater than 1600 deg C.) extraction techniques and may allow selective extraction from different component minerals, yielding additional important information.
