Dear Isogeochemers,

Absolutely trouble-free storage of water samples (and of other liqids as
well) can be easily achieved in simple glass ampules that are commercially
available from lab suppliers.  Hand-held portable butane mini-torches are
cheap and can be refilled.  Their heat is sufficient to seal the
low-melting glass of the ampules, even in the field.  I recommend to
pre-heat the new ampules in an oven to 450 deg C overnight to burn away
organic dust, then to keep the ampules in a clean zip-lock bag.  The glass
can be easily engraved to permanently identify samples.  Once you have
your samples under glass, there is no worry ever about isotope
fractionatioin during storage.

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Arndt Schimmelmann
Biogeochemical Laboratories
Indiana University
Department of Geological Sciences
1005 East Tenth Street
Bloomington, IN 47405-1403
U.S.A.
ph 812-855-7645
fax 812-855-7961
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