Evaporated Samples Are Re-Dissolved

On April 20, 2010, the Deepwater Horizon Drilling Platform exploded and sank, causing the largest oil spill yet recorded. Samples from the oil spill were collected by Louisiana USGS scientists Greg Swayze and Charlie Demas and sent for analysis in Menlo Park, CA. The first step of the process was a liquid chromatograph column analysis of the compounds, which separated the individual compounds that compose the petroleum. Then, the samples were placed in a nitrogen evaporator, which vaporized the original solvents. Now, the samples are dissolved into a new set of solvents. These solvents allow a mass spectrometer to finely separate the compounds in the petroleum to further identify the overall sample.