Dr Christopher Coath

Research summary

I study the evolution of the early solar system. Isotopic characterisation of primitive meteorites provides insights into stellar inputs to the proto-solar nebula and hence the astrophysical context in which the solar system formed.

Short-lived radio nuclides, extant in the early solar system, can provide constraints on the timing of formation and differentiation of the earliest solids in the solar system and constrain nebula heterogeneity.

The usefulness of 60Fe, which decays to 60Ni, as such a chronometer has been questioned and I am engaged in high-precision Ni isotope analyses with the aim of settling this issue.

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Recent publications

• Standish, CD, Dhuime, BPM, Chapman, R, Coath, CD, Hawkesworth, CJ & Pike, AWG 2013, ‘Solution and laser ablation MC-ICP-MS lead isotope analysis of gold’. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, vol 28., pp. 217-225
• Coath, CD, Steele, RCJ & Lunnon, WF 2013, ‘Statistical bias in isotope ratios’. Journal of Analytical Atomic Spectrometry, vol 28., pp. 52-58

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View complete publications list in the University of Bristol publications system