A Mossbauer Spectrometer System for Earth Sciences

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This award provides one-half of the funds required to purchase a Mossbauer spectrometer system to be installed and operated in the Principal Investigator's laboratory in the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Washington. The remaining funds required will be provided by the University. Mossbauer spectroscopy on Fe-57 is a valuable tool for the study of a variety of phenomena of geochemical interest. The new spectrometer will be capable of very high resolution and equipped with a high-temperature furnace and a liquid helium cryostat for the study of earth materials ranging from fine-grained, poorly crystallized iron minerals in a "desert varnish" and oceanic sediments to minerals from igneous and metamorphic rocks and pure synthetic iron silicate minerals. The phenomena to be studied in such samples include oxidation states, characterization of fine- grained ("X-ray amorphous") minerals, order-disorder in ferromagnesian silicates, thermally activated electron delocalization in mixed-valence iron minerals and magnetic phase transitions in iron bearing silicates.