Deep-sea simulation device

But a device created by two University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) geoscientists will duplicate extreme sea-floor conditions inside a small chamber and will use X-rays to examine samples under these conditions.

‘Instead of going down to the abyssal plain of the ocean floor, we’re bringing it to the lab,’ said Stephen Guggenheim, professor of earth and environmental sciences at UIC.

Guggenheim and emeritus professor Gus Koster van Groos say their high-pressure environmental chamber can simulate deep-sea pressure to 1,000 atmospheres - comparable to deeper parts of the ocean - and at temperatures from zero to 200°C.

The two began earlier prototypes of their device about a decade ago, improving it by trying different technologies and using more durable metals for the pressure vessel.

X-ray diffraction is used to determine the composition of the materials reacting in the chamber and to study the effect of the sea floor environment.

An inline mixing pump keeps suspensions mixed and in equilibrium.