THE NEW LA-ICP-MS FACILITY IN THE GEOLOGICAL INSTITUTE AT BULGARIAN ACADEMY OF SCIENECES - FIRST RESULTS FROM TRACE ELEMENTS DETERMINATION AND U-Pb AGE DATING OF METAMORPHIC ROCKS

The new lab facility at the Geological Institute of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences was set up in the end of 2009. The main equipment consist a state of the art PerkinElmer ELAN DRC-e ICP-MS and New Wave Research UP-193FX excimer laser ablation system. Combined together, it is a precise instrument for geochemical research and geochronology. One of the leading research topics is quantitative determination of trace and ultra trace elements in rocks together with their age dating clarification. We report our first results obtained with the new equipment to unravel the great opportunities for usage in the field of the geological science. Our main efforts till now are in the field of research directed to metamorphites including trace elements determination of bulk rock samples from different rock types - metagranites, metapegmatites, metapelites, orthoschists, and metabasites and in situ U-Pb age dating of zircons.