Tephra Analysis Unit (TAU)

For more than four decades the TAU has served academic and commercial researchers and students, facilitating diverse research including:

• Holocene climate change
• palaeoenvironmental reconstruction
• physical volcanology and igneous petrogenesis, and
• dating of cultural remains

In addition to the identification of source volcanoes for tephrochronology, volatile elements F, Cl and S are measured for studies of degassing and environmental impacts of eruptions.

The TAU actively engages in developing improved methods for the microanalysis and preparation of tephras. Examples include analytical protocols for analysis of crypto-tephras with beam diameters as low as 3 microns without sodium mobilisation (Hayward, 2012), and preparation of crypto-tephras with grain sizes below 50 microns (Hall and Hayward, 2015).

We welcome informal discussions, in confidence, of research plans from prospective and existing clients. Please note that the TAU and Electron Probe Microanalysis Facility are in high demand and that the schedule is usually fully booked up to 8-12 weeks in advance.

Access to the Tephra Analysis Unit 

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Selected Bibliography

The following offers a cross-section of the vast available literature on EPMA of tephras and melt inclusions.

Selected bibliography