Acquisition of an F.T.I.R. Spectrometer

该合同将提供购买傅里叶变换红外光谱仪所需资金的一半。此次收购所需的额外资金已由加州大学圣克鲁斯分校承诺。预计利用这一仪器进行的研究将为若干地球化学和地球物理过程提供基本限制。这些包括但不限于：1)研究在高压下硅酸盐熔体中发生的结构变化，从而可能研究早期地球发生的分化过程；2)在中压和含挥发物的硅酸盐组合中描述挥发物（主要是水和二氧化碳）的形态特征，与高压和高温下流体的溶液性质以及挥发物在地球深部可能的滞留有关；3)研究矿物对高压的键合性质的响应，包括极端条件下矿物的热化学性质，以及矿物经历亚稳相变的机制；4)一种潜在表征不透明材料在高压下导热性的新方法。

This award will provide for half the funds needed for the acquisition of a Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometer. The additional funding required for this acquisition has been committed by the University of California at Santa Cruz. It is anticipated that studies utilizing this instrument will provide fundamental constraints on a number of geochemical and geophysical processes. These include, but are not limited to 1) examination of the structural changes taking place in silicate melts at high pressures, and thus potentially on differentiation processes occurring in the early Earth; 2) characterizing the speciation of volatiles (primarily water and carbon dioxide) within both mixed volatile-fluid phases at moderate pressures, and in volatile- bearing silicate assemblages, with relevance both for the solution properties of fluids at high pressure and temperature, and for possible retention of volatiles in the deep Earth; 3) investigating the response of bonding properties of minerals to high pressures, with implications both for the thermochemical properties of minerals under extreme conditions, and for the mechanisms by which minerals undergo metastable phase transitions; and 4) a novel method for potentially characterizing the thermal conductivity of opaque materials at high pressures.