Acquisition of Automated, Gas-Source Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer

该奖项提供了所需资金的一半， 自动化、多收集器、气体源同位素的获取 将安装和运行的比率质谱仪， 地质和行星科学司 加州理工学院。加州理工学院正在提供 剩余资金需要。 地质和矿产司正在进行的研究 行星科学需要大量的稳定同位素 天然岩石、矿物、水样和有机物的分析 材料.其中一些天然样本仅在 非常小的数量，新仪器需要 对大量样品进行微量分析。一个主要 分析的研究重点将是使用 氧氢碳的同位素特征 地壳中水-岩相互作用的历史， 在研究同位素交换的详细机制时， 矿物和共存的水溶液之间的关系。

This award provides one-half the funds required for the acquisition of an automated, multi-collector, gas-source isotope ratio mass spectrometer that will be installed and operated in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. Caltech is providing the remaining funds needed. Research in progress in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences requires a very large number of stable isotope analyses of natural rocks, minerals, water samples, and organic materials. Some of these natural samples are available only in very small quantities, and the new instrument is needed to perform microanalyses on a large number of samples. A major research emphasis of the analyses will be in the use of the isotopic signatures of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon to decipher the history of water-rock interactions in the Earth's crust and in investigations of the detailed mechanisms of isotopic exchange between minerals and coexisting aqueous solutions.