Prof. Dr. Werner Aeschbach

Research interests

• Tracers and isotopes in hydro(geo)logy, limnology, oceanography, and glaciology
• Physics of aquatic systems, groundwater science, water resources research
• Paleoclimatology, noble gas thermometry, noble gas geochemistry
• Development and application of new methods and models (major achievements: CE-model for excess air, inverse modeling software for noble gas data interpretation, first noble gas temperatures from speleothem fluid inclusions, first 39Ar-ATTA applications)

Selected publications

• Feng, Z., P. Bohleber, S. Ebser, L. Ringena, M. Schmidt, A .Kersting, P. Hopkins, H. Hoffmann, A. Fischer, W. Aeschbach, and M. K. Oberthaler, 2019. Dating glacier ice of the last millennium by quantum technology. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 116: 8781–8786, doi:10.1073/pnas.1816468116.

• Ebser, S., A. Kersting, T. Stoven, Z. Feng, L. Ringena, M.Schmidt, T. Tanhua, W. Aeschbach, M. K. Oberthaler, 2018. 39Ar dating with small samples provides new key constraints on ocean ventilation. Nat. Commun. 9: 5046, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-07465-7.

• Jung, M., W. Aeschbach, 2018. A new software tool for the analysis of noble gas data sets from (ground)water. Environ. Modell. Software 103: 120–130, doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2018.02.004.

• Ritterbusch, F., S. Ebser, J. Welte, T. Reichel, A. Kersting, R. Purtschert, W. Aeschbach-Hertig, M. K. Oberthaler, 2014. Groundwater dating with Atom Trap Trace Analysis of 39Ar. Geophys. Res. Lett. 41: 6758–6764, doi: 10.1002/2014GL061120.
  First application of 39Ar-ATTA to date groundwater

• Aeschbach-Hertig, W. and D.K. Solomon, 2013. Noble gas thermometry in groundwater hydrology, in: Burnard, P. (Ed.), The noble gases as geochemical tracers. Advances in Isotope Geochemistry. Springer Verlag, pp. 81-122. Preprint

• Aeschbach-Hertig, W., and T. Gleeson, 2012. Regional strategies for the accelerating global problem of groundwater depletion. Nature Geoscience 5: 853-86.

• Corcho Alvarado, J. A., F. Barbecot, R. Purtschert, M. Gillon, W. Aeschbach-Hertig, and R. Kipfer, 2009. European climate variations over the past half-millennium reconstructed from groundwater. Geophys. Res. Lett. 36, L15703, doi:10.1029/2009GL038826.

• Kluge, T., T. Marx, D. Scholz, S. Niggemann, A. Mangini, and W. Aeschbach-Hertig, 2008. A new tool for palaeoclimate reconstruction: Noble gas temperatures from fluid inclusions in speleothems. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 269: 407–414.

• Corcho Alvarado, J. A., R. Purtschert, F. Barbecot, C. Chabault, J. Ruedi, V. Schneider, W. Aeschbach-Hertig, R. Kipfer, and H.H. Loosli, 2007. Constraining the age distribution of highly mixed groundwater using 39Ar: a multiple environmental tracer (3H/3He, 85Kr, 39Ar and 14C) study in the semi-confined Fontainebleau Sands aquifer (France). Water Resour. Res. 43, W03427, doi:10.1029/2006WR005096.

• Kipfer, R., W. Aeschbach-Hertig, F. Peeters, and M. Stute, 2002. Noble gases in lakes and ground waters. In: Porcelli, D., C. Ballentine, R. Wieler (eds.), Noble gases in geochemistry and cosmochemistry. Rev. Mineral. Geochem. 47: 615–700.

• Aeschbach-Hertig, W., F. Peeters, U. Beyerle, and R. Kipfer, 2000. Palaeotemperature reconstruction from noble gases in ground water taking into account equilibration with entrapped air. Nature 405: 1040–1044.

• Beyerle, U., W. Aeschbach-Hertig, D. M. Imboden, H. Baur, T. Graf, and R. Kipfer, 2000. A mass spectrometric system for the analysis of noble gases and tritium from water samples. Environ. Sci. Technol. 34: 2042–2050.

• Weyhenmeyer, C. E., S. J. Burns, H. N. Waber, W. Aeschbach-Hertig, R. Kipfer, H. H. Loosli, and A. Matter, 2000. Cool glacial temperatures and changes in moisture source recorded in Oman groundwaters. Science 287: 842–845

• Aeschbach-Hertig, W., F. Peeters, U. Beyerle, and R. Kipfer, 1999. Interpretation of dissolved atmospheric noble gases in natural waters. Water Resour. Res. 35: 2779–2792.

• Beyerle, U., R. Purtschert, W. Aeschbach-Hertig, D.M. Imboden, H.H. Loosli, R. Wieler, and R. Kipfer, 1998. Climate and groundwater recharge during the last glaciation in an ice-covered region. Science 282: 731–734.

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