Research in the Earth Sciences Using Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at Purdue University

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This award provides funding support for the operation and equipment upgrade costs of setting up a research center for accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) based on an existing FN tandem accelerator at Purdue University. Establishment and operation of the facility will be a joint venture involving faculty and technical personnel from a combination of the departments of physics, earth and atmospheric sciences, and chemistry at Purdue. The AMS facility is intended to service the analytical needs of the U.S. geosciences research community nationwide. Accelerator mass spectrometry provides unique sensitivity capabilities for the detection and quantitative measure of very small concentrations of isotopes in very small samples of matter. To date AMS has proven particularly useful for tracking the mass transfer of subducted sediments and groundwater and for dating geological and archeological samples. The most useful isotopes in such applications so far have been carbon-14, chlorine-36, beryllium-10, and aluminum-26. The Purdue facility will concentrate on measurements of these isotopes in a variety of geological samples and in technique development efforts aimed at improving detection limits and precision for these and additional isotopes of potential interest in the geosciences.