T04_P18

Carbonus, the new carbon AMS facility devoted to paleoclimate studies at the University of Salamanca

Quintana Arnés B¹,  Rodríguez Álvarez A¹, Ausín B¹, Borrego D¹, Flores J¹

¹Universidad De Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain

Carbonus is the new ¹⁴C facility at the University of Salamanca (Spain). It is made up of a MICADAS accelerator mass spectrometer and a clean chemical laboratory devoted specifically to prepare carbon samples and equipped with an AGE3, made by Ionplus, which is coupled to an Elemental Analyser (EA). Additionally, ultra low-level LSC counting preceded by a benzene synthesis procedure is available to determine absolute ¹⁴C in large samples. The main purpose of this accelerator facility is to date samples of interest in paleoclimate studies. Being set in before the COVID pandemic and once several severe issues due to the building electrical current were solved, Carbonus is ready to start operation. In this work, the background study aimed to characterize the facility performance as well as the first results on Holocene marine sediments from the Powell 2020 Antarctic campaign will be presented. Previously, the facility will be described and the lessons learnt from the different issues that affected the Micadas operation will be given.