Construction of a high-vacuum, laser-fluorination extractionline for isotopic analysis of silicate and oxide minerals

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This award provides 50% of the funds needed to assemble a laser fluorination extraction line for the analysis of oxygen isotopes in small samples. The extraction system will be installed in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. Caltech is committed to providing the remaining 50% necessary to acquire the laser source. The equipment will be used by Caltech geochemists to analyze the oxygen isotope composition of small mineral samples from terrestrial igneous and metamorphic rocks, ore deposits, and meteorites. The technique involves laser heating of silicates in a reaction chamber that contains the sample and a fluorinating agent. The reaction produces oxygen for isotopic analysis with high sensitivity and excellent spatial resolution and allows the solution of geological problems such as the multiple timing of vein mineralization, isotopic zoning of mineral grains, and the explanation of hydrothermal effects in and around crystallizing magma bodies.