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Organic Geochemistry Laboratory

Learn about the organic geochemistry laboratory suite at the USGS Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center in Santa Cruz, California.

The geochemical laboratory suite includes a cold storage room, preparation lab, extraction lab, and instrumentation lab. Analytics in the extraction and instrumentation labs include extraction, identification, and quantification of biomarkers and contaminants of sediments, oils, tars, and other organic rich materials; gaseous hydrocarbon and fixed gas composition; and methane carbon isotopic composition to determine gas sources and content.

Photo of a laboratory with lots of equipment on the countertops and a tank of gas.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.
PCMSC Organic Geochemistry Instrumentation Laboratory
Photo of lab equipment used for processing samples.
Sources/Usage: Public Domain. Visit Media to see details.
PCMSC's Agilent Triple Quadrupole gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer