Development of krypton (Kr) and xenon (Xe) isotopic analyses has been carried out at the ETH Zürich Noble Gas laboratory, with the aim of determining the Earth’s mantle initial volatile composition and potential Earth’s precursors for volatile elements. In order to get more precise Kr isotopic measurements, the release curves of Kr and Xe from the charcoal trap have been determined and the separation of argon (Ar) from Kr from Xe has been set up, so as to be able to measure Kr and Xe separately, and not simultaneously as was usually done in the ETH Zürich noble gas laboratory. This first step was important for both work packages 1 and 2. For mantle-derived samples, a stainless-steel piston crusher was developed, but only partly tested due to limited lab access. Therefore, no mantle-derived samples have been measured during the reporting period. For the work package 2, 14 samples have been measured (11 of them in the last 4 weeks of contract), including 2 enstatite chondrites (EC), 2 ordinary chondrites (OC) and 7 carbonaceous chondrites (CC, 1 CC measured in 2 aliquots and another one measured in 3 aliquots). During the reporting period, the researcher has developed skills of project management and mentoring, as planned. The researcher attended several courses about leadership and problem solving. Relative to mentoring, the researcher was involved as a co-supervisor of one PhD student from the noble gas group (the PhD student’s main supervisor being the researcher’s supervisor) for the first 8 months of the project. During the reporting period, the researcher was invited to present her work to 6 major international conferences, one workshop about Mars, as well as to give 3 departmental seminars in the UK and USA. The researcher continued her reviewing activities for peer-reviewed journals and research agencies and was involved in the organization of one noble gas workshop (DINGUE VIII) and 2 scientific sessions at the major geochemistry and cosmochemistry conference, Goldschmidt 2022 and 2023. The researcher participated to one interview with a journalist writing an article for the magazine Horizon Europe. Finally, the researcher also applied to several academic jobs in 2022 and 2023.
As an overview, the project results towards the objective of the action in line with Annex 1 of the Grant Agreement are: (i) new Kr and Xe isotopic data of several chondrite meteorites, (ii) development of non-technical skills (leadership, management skills, mentoring skills), (iii) dissemination of research results at international conferences, one international workshop and seminars as well as networking. Exploitable results are the new Kr and Xe isotopic data of meteorites. The data will be reduced in order then to determine the trapped compositions of meteorite (correction for Kr and Xe cosmogenic contribution and for terrestrial contamination as appropriate), and will be included in a paper to be submitted to a peer-review journal.
