Editorial

The first four articles published in this issue of Geostandards and Geoanalytical Research arose from research paperspresented at the V.M. Goldschmidt Conference held in Vancouver in 2008. This small collection covers a diverse range ofsubjects and analytical techniques including microfocus X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray photo-emission elec-tron microscopy (XPEEM) on meteorite material, multicollector ICP-MS on seawater, TIMS, SIMS and LA-ICP-MS on geologi-cally young zircon megacrysts from China and accelerator mass spectrometry for the determination of chlorine isotopes. JohnEliades and colleagues (University of Toronto) describe a radio-frequency quadrupole collision cell designed to remove iso-baric interferences in accelerator mass spectrometry. Using their new system, they report results of a study of anion-gas inter-actions and measurement of a 36Cl reference material. Xian-Hua Li (Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing andGuangzhou) and co-workers report details of a new zircon reference material (the Penglai megacrysts) from early Pliocenebasalts in South China. Detailed characterisation (including Hf, O, Pb isotopes and age) suggests that the Penglai zircons aresuitable as calibrators for quality control of microbeam U-Pb geochronological determinations of geologically young zircons.Olivier Rouxel and Maureen Auro (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, USA) describe an analytical technique for mea-surement of Fe isotopes in coastal seawater by multicollector ICP-MS. Their study also involved determination of Fe isotopesin a suite of water reference materials used in inter-laboratory comparisons, and they were able to distinguish iron sources ina number of coastal environments based on isotopic signatures. Paul Schofield (Natural History Museum, London) and col-leagues applied X-ray spectromicroscopy in the study of mineral intergrowths in the Santa Catharina Meteorite. They usedtwo non-destructive techniques – microfocus X-ray absorption spectroscopy and XRF with X-ray photo-emission electronmicroscopy – to reveal, in situ, variations in chemistry and oxidation state across mineral microtextures, providing informationon the Fe, Ni, P and O composition of phases within the studied sample.

Many thanks are due to the invited panel of Guest Editors – Joel Baker (School of Geography, Environment and EarthSciences, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand), Antonio Simonetti (Notre Dame University, USA), Martin Bizzarro(Centre for Star and Planet Formation, University of Copenhagen, Denmark) and Martin Obst (Institute for Geoscience, Eber-hard Karls University Tübingen, Germany) – who agreed to edit this collection for GGR, and also to the reviewers who gavesuch detailed consideration to the typescripts.

Edward WilliamsManaging Editor GGR

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