National Ocean Sciences Accelerator Mass Spectrometer Facility, Department of Geology and Geophysics, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
Data Center Description
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.