Underground gases and water chemistry and isotopes laboratory

ITER’s Underground Gases and Water Chemistry and Isotopes Laboratory is a scientific and technological facility designed for the chemical and isotopic characterisation of underground gases and water, as well as of other environmental matrices.

The laboratory features the following equipment:

Laboratory instrumentation:

  • Portable dual-channel gas microchromatographs Varian 4900 and Varian 490 with TCD detector.
  • Portable dual-channel gas microchromatograph Varian 2003P with TCD detector.
  • Gas chromatograph Varian 3800 with TCD and FID detectors.
  • Gas chromatograph Varian 3900 with TCD detector.
  • Varian Saturn 2000 ion trap gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy system.
  • Liquid chromatograph Dionex 500DX.
  • Liquid chromatograph Metrohm 861 Advanced Compac IC.
  • Automatic titrator Metrohm 716 DMS Titrino.
  • ICP spectrometer Perkin Elmer Optima 3300DV.
  • Stable isotope ratio mass spectrometer Thermo Scientific MAT 253.
  • Noble gas mass spectrometer Thermo Scientific Helix SFT.
  • Quadrupole mass spectrometer Pfeiffer Omnistar 422.

Fieldwork instrumentation

  • Portable diffuse flux meter for CO2 and H2S, featuring a portable infrared spectrophotometer, model LICOR LI-800, and an ALPHASENSE H2S electrochemical sensor.
  • Portable mercury vapour analyser, model JEROME 431-X.
  • Portable hydrogen sulfide analyser, model JEROME 631-X
  • Portable radon detector, model SARAD RTM2010-2
  • IR thermal-imaging camera, model FLIR P65
  • Portable remote optical sensors for monitoring air quality and volcanic-hydrothermal gas emissions.
    • Correlation spectrometer (COSPEC IV and V)
    • Differential optical absorption spectrometer (UVDOAS)
    • Miniaturized differential optical absorption spectrometer (miniDOAS)
    • Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer (FTIR)
    • Tunable diode laser (TDL) gas sensor.
  • A network of 13 geochemical stations across the Canary Islands for analysing gases and volatile substances.
  • A network of 10 geodetic triangulation stations across the Canaries for monitoring ground deformation.
  • A network of 8 volcano-monitoring webcams installed in Tenerife.