Applications of accelerator mass spectrometry

•A comprehensive review of applications of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) is presented.•The ultra-sensitive detection and application of long-lived radionuclides is discussed in broad context.•The special role of 14C as a ‘gift of nature’, and its boundless applications are discussed.•Applications in the environment at large are summarized, together with an extended list of references.•The seven domains of the environment are: atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, cosmosphere, and technosphere.

Applications of accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) evolved into multi-disciplinary research covering virtually every domain of our environment at large. The possibilities of applications are clearly coupled to technical developments of AMS, which will be covered by the accompanying article of H.-A. Synal. The present review therefore concentrates on describing AMS applications to the largest extent possible. Since the knowledge of the author on the many fields where AMS measurements are performed is, of course, limited, the selection of examples discussed in this review is somewhat biased. In order to compensate for this, a rather long list of references is presented, which should be consulted for a deeper understanding of the respective fields. The seven domains of our environment at large (atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, lithosphere, cosmosphere, and technosphere) are being used as a guideline for the present review.

Graphical abstractFigure optionsDownload full-size imageDownload high-quality image (157 K)Download as PowerPoint slide