Renovation and Consolidation of Research Facilities of Department of Geology and Geophysics and the Seismographic Stations

麦肯大厅，地球科学大楼，位于加州大学伯克利分校校园内，设计为容纳三个系：地理学、地质学和地球物理学以及古生物学。与这些部门共享设施的是地球科学图书馆、地震台和古生物博物馆，这是一个有组织的研究单位。随着地球科学实验和分析研究的规模和复杂程度的爆炸性增长，分配的空间的适应能力变得不足。没有最初为同位素工作设计的设施，这些设施需要重要的净室来制备样品，也没有专门用于实验工作的空间，这些实验工作涉及在高温和高压下运行的仪器，旨在复制地球内的条件。确定岩石、矿物和流体成分所需的分析设施缺乏足够的空间。岩石粉碎和粉碎室不足，造成了一个主要的粉尘问题，使减少污染变得困难。尽管如此，在不利的环境中，教职员工仍然很有成效。学术研究基础设施方案的资金将帮助大学努力翻新和巩固地质和地球物理系以及地震台的研究设施。这些设施的现代化项目是伯克利提高地球科学学术水平的更大计划中不可或缺的一步。在支持地球科学家在解决紧迫的社会需求方面发挥积极作用的同时，该部正在建立一个改进的背景基础，以便通过其环境研究计划严格衡量人类占领地球的影响。将翻新研究实验室，这些实验室从事矿物物理和先进材料、地震和地质灾害、涉及广泛地质原因、影响和时间尺度的全球变化，以及利用各种微观分析技术询问岩石中保留的地球过程的记录。该部门一直是这些领域的主导力量，例如，对彗星撞击的灾难性努力、山脉隆起的影响、景观反应、不可再生资源的开发和酸雨产生的开创性研究就是例证。翻修项目将惠及17名教职员工、20名博士后研究员、46名研究生和38名本科生，为他们提供现代化的设施，继续追求地球科学的学术卓越。

McCone Hall, the Earth Sciences Building, located on the campus of the University of California, Berkeley, was designed to house three departments: Geography, Geology and Geophysics, and Paleontology. Sharing the facility with the departments are the Earth Sciences Library, the Seismographic Stations and the Museum of Paleontology, an organized research unit. With the explosive growth in the scale and sophistication of experimental and analytical research in the Earth sciences, the adaptive capacity of the allotted space has become inadequate. There were no facilities initially designed for isotope work that require vital clean rooms for sample preparation, or dedicated space for experimental work involving apparatus operating at high temperatures and pressures designed to replicate the conditions within the Earth. Analytical facilities necessary to determine the composition of rocks, minerals and fluids lack sufficient space. Rock crushing and pulverizing rooms are inadequate and contribute to a major dust problem making it difficult to reduce contamination. Nevertheless, the faculty continues to be productive in an unfavorable environment. Funding from the Academic Research Infrastructure Program will assist the University in its efforts to renovate and consolidate research facilities for the Department of Geology and Geophysics, and the seismographic stations. The facilities' modernization project is an integral step in a larger plan of enhancing academic excellence in Earth Sciences at Berkeley. While supporting Earth scientists taking an active role in addressing urgent societal needs, the department is in the process of establishing an improved background base for rigorously gauging the effect of human occupation of the planet through its environmental research program. Research laboratories where work on mineral physics and advance materials, seismic and geological hazards, global changing spanning a broad range of geological causes, effects and time scales, and interrogation of the record of Earth processes retained in rocks using a wide range of micro-analytical techniques will be renovated. The department has been a leading force in these domains, as exemplified by pioneering research on the catastrophic efforts of comet impacts, effects of mountain uplift, landscape response, the development of non-renewable resources, and acid rain generation. The renovation project will benefit 17 faculty, 20 post doctoral fellows, 46 graduate students, and 38 undergraduates, providing them with a modernized facility to continue their pursuit of academic excellence in Earth science.