Facilities

Laboratories - Fission track laboratory

The Fission track laboratory in the Geology Department was installed in Autumn 2007. It was funded by Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) and the Petroleum Infrastructure Programme (PIP) of the Petroleum Affairs Division (PAD).

The system is based on a state-of-the-art Carl Zeiss AxioImager Z1m microscope, using an Autoscan AS3000i/f stage system in conjunction with Sony linear sensors for improved positioning accuracy, and an Olympus/SIS CView 3 high-resolution digital colour camera. The system is controlled by Autoscan Trakscan software, which now also incorporates FastTracks, an automated track counting module. FastTracks consists of an image acquisition module that automatically acquires a series of reflected and transmitted light images at each area selected for counting. These are archived and a separate automated counting and review module is then used offline to analyse the data. It also incoprorates a review function which allows the operator to review (and if necessary, modify) the results achieved by the program. The automated counting system has so far been applied successfully to fission track dating of apatite and monazite (e.g. Gleadow et al., 2007 PDF 57KB).