Development of ERCS hydrogen analysis for melt inclusions in erupted magmatic samples

In geological science, hydrogen analysis of melt inclusions can provide important insights into the dynamic mechanism of magmatic activities. Melt inclusions are specimens of the magma trapped within capsules in crystals in the magma chamber that are subsequently expelled from volcano and end up in volcanic rocks. Since the sizes of the melt inclusions are very small, ranging from tens to several hundred micrometers in diameter, hydrogen analysis by means of elastic recoil coincidence spectrometry (ERCS) has been developed at a proton microbeam facility. This method of hydrogen analysis is simple, non-destructive, and rapid, especially when using a newly developed calibration method that employs Mylar films as hydrogen standards. The depth profile of hydrogen can be derived from the measured sum-energy spectrum using our ERCS analysis method.