NSF Arizona Accelerator Mass Spectrometry Facility: Operations and Research Applications

这笔拨款为亚利桑那大学加速器质谱（AMS）设施的运营和维护预算提供了额外三年的部分支持。亚利桑那AMS实验室自1981年以来一直在美国国家科学基金会的持续资助下运作，旨在支持亚利桑那AMS工作人员进行的前沿内部研究和技术开发，并主要为美国国家科学基金会资助的PI提供放射性碳（14C）测年服务。该实验室目前每年分析3500多个样品的14C含量，其中约19%用于内部研究。该设施不仅支持地球科学家的需求，还支持海洋学家、冰川学家、水文地质学家、考古学家、行星科学家和大气科学家的需求。依赖亚利桑那州AMS分析的研究实例包括：南极洲冰盖动力学的古气候学研究和中纬度智利安第斯山脉的山地冰川动力学；古地震学研究；古印第安人在美洲定居时间的考古研究；基于珊瑚骨架14C/13C特征的上层水柱动力学大气与海洋研究；结合珊瑚和洞穴动物的14C和U/Th定年，将大气放射性碳定标扩展到目前约11.5 ka的年代学极限之外；使用14C作为地下水中溶解有机碳池和无机碳池的示踪剂；以及对球粒陨石和推断的火星陨石中碳来源的14C研究。此外，该实验室还培养了一批利用AMS技术从事物理、化学和地球科学研究项目的本科生、研究生和博士后。由于该设施所支持的科学领域的多样性，NSF的持续支持由地球科学/仪器和设施项目部门、极地项目办公室内的项目和SBER/考古项目共享。＊＊＊

9730699 Donahue This grant provides an additional three years partial support of the operations and maintenance budget for the University of Arizona accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facility. The Arizona AMS lab has been in operation since 1981 under continuous NSF funding with the intentions of supporting the frontier in- house research and technique development conducted by the Arizona AMS staff and to provide radiocarbon (14C) dating services primarily for NSF-funded PI's. The lab presently analyzes the 14C content of over 3,500 samples per year of which about 19% were for in-house research. This facility supports the needs of not just Earth scientists, but also, oceanographers, glaciologists, hydrogeologists, archaeologists, planetary scientists and atmospheric scientists. Examples of research that have relied on Arizona AMS analyses include: paleoclimatological studies of ice sheet dynamics in Antarctica and mountain glacier dynamics in the mid-latitude Chilean Andes; studies in paleoseismology; archaeological studies of the timing of Paleoindian settlements in the Americas; atmospheric and oceanographic studies of upper water column dynamics based on the 14C/13C signatures recorded in coralline skeletons; coupled 14C and U/Th dating of corals and speleothems to extend atmospheric radiocarbon calibration beyond the present dendrochronologic limit of ca. 11.5 ka; the use of 14C as a tracer of the pools of dissolved organic and inorganic carbon pools in groundwater; and 14C investigations of the origin of carbon in chondrites and the inferred Martian meteorites. Furthermore, this lab trains a diverse array of undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral students engaged in physics, chemistry and geoscience research programs that utilize AMS techniques. Due to the diverse range of scientific fields supported by this facility, continued NSF support is shared by the Division of Earth Sciences/Instrumentation and Facilities Program, programs within the Office of Polar Programs and the SBER/Archaeometry program. ***