Oxygen isotope ratios provide critical climatic information in polar research. A major use of this technique is in ice core research where the isotope ratios of the stored accumulated water provide climate and elevation signatures. Several ice cores will be obtained or are awaiting analysis of glaciological programs. A large number of samples collected for these projects will have to be analyzed for O-18 content. These analyses will be done at the Quaternary Isotope Laboratory of the University of Washington, where an oxygen isotope facility was constructed for this purpose. The facility contains an automated Micromass 903 spectrometer, with a triple collector for simultaneous determination of 13C/12C and 18-O/16-O ratios.
