Equipment Acquisition and Upgrades, Institute for Rock Magnetism

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9807021 Banerjee Funds awarded by NSF to the Institute for Rock Magnetism (IRM) will be matched (50% basis) by the University of Minnesota to acquire two new instruments, a Magnetic Property Measurement System (MPMS) and an Alternating Field Demagnetizer, and upgrade two current instruments, a Mossbauer Spectrometer and an Alternating Gradient Force Magnetometer (AGFM, also known as "Micromag"). The IRM is a national facility for advanced in-house and extramural research in fundamental rock magnetism and its applications to research in tectonics, stratigraphy, marine geology and geophysics, past climatic and environmental change and bio-mineralization. The new equipment will result in a significant increase in the capability to identify and quantify very low concentrations (100ppm or greater) of the oxides, hydroxides, carbonates and sulfides of iron present in continental and marine sediments. These minerals serve as sensitve indicators of geological processes icluding changes in the geomagnetic field, plate tectonic motions, microbial mineralization and climatic change. ***