Stepped-heating experiments on martian meteorites Allan Hills 84001 (ALH84001) and Elephant Moraine 79001 (EETA79001) revealed low-temperature (200 to 430 degrees Celsius) fractions with a carbon isotopic composition delta13C between -22 and -33 per mil and a carbon-14 content that is 40 to 60 percent of that of modern terrestrial carbon, consistent with a terrestrial origin for most of the organic material. Intermediate-temperature (400 to 600 degrees Celsius) carbonate-rich fractions of ALH84001 have delta13C of +32 to +40 per mil with a low carbon-14 content, consistent with an extraterrestrial origin, whereas some of the carbonate fraction of EETA79001 is terrestrial. In addition, ALH84001 contains a small preterrestrial carbon component of unknown origin that combusts at intermediate temperatures. This component is likely a residual acid-insoluble carbonate or a more refractory organic phase.

This study describes a sample preparation technique used to isolate dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in groundwater for radiocarbon analysis using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The goal of the work is to improve our ability to determine groundwater residence times based on 14C measurements of the DOC fraction in groundwater. Water samples were collected from carbonate and volcanic rock aquifers in southern Nevada. Multiple measurements of total dissolved organic carbon (TDOC) in groundwater from one site are used to demonstrate the reproducibility of the analytical procedure. The reproducibility of the method is about one percent (1σ) for a 0.5 mg sample. The procedural blank for the same size sample contains about 1 percent modern carbon (pMC).

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