Continuation of a Facility: Institute for Rock Magnetism

这笔赠款为明尼苏达大学岩石磁性研究所(IRM)的运营、维护和发展提供持续支持。IRM是一种经济高效的手段，为美国和国际地球科学、材料科学和物理学界提供了在世界其他地方找不到的知识库和分析武器库。IRM学院开创和/或采用的岩石磁性技术专门为磁性矿物记录器的低温、无损表征而设计，继续被明尼苏达州的教师以及美国和国际地球科学家广泛使用。已经开发出通过低温剩磁测量来识别海洋样品中的生物磁性矿物的技术。其他低温技术已经被用来识别黄土-古土壤序列中成壤过程中产生的超顺磁性物质，这些数据已被应用于中国、中欧和阿拉斯加的区域古气候研究。对明尼苏达州湖泊沉积物中发现的高分辨率全新世地磁场变异性记录的研究正在被用来改进准确测量古强度的技术，古强度是模拟地磁场行为的重要制约因素。利用磁力显微镜(MFM)的研究是我们理解磁性矿物记录器随时间变化的保真度以及它们对温度、化学和应力变化的响应的基础，并为磁性介质行业提供有价值的信息。此外，IRM工作人员与考古学家和微生物学家的新合作有望限制人类在阿拉伯南部最早的农业实践的时间，了解地壳深处极端环境中的微生物生命，并通过使用新的岩石磁性和古地磁技术和代理，检测外星样本中微生物活动的证据。就扩展而言，IRM一直是，并将继续是研究生将岩石磁性技术应用于构造、地磁场行为和古气候学研究的主要培训基地。IRM的最先进的研究和开发通过IRM的“访问学者”计划得到广泛传播，该计划将来自世界各地的研究人员吸引到明尼苏达州，利用这些仪器并与IRM工作人员发展共生工作关系。此外，一年两次的圣达菲会议宣传了IRM现有的许多独特仪器和技术的成功(即磁性测量系统、穆斯堡尔谱学、交流梯度磁场磁强计、磁力显微镜)，并突出了该领域在国际范围内的科学进步。

9818704BanerjeeThis grant provides continued support for the operation, maintenance and development of the Institute for Rock Magnetism (IRM) at the University of Minnesota. The IRM is a cost-effective means for providing the U.S. and international geoscience, materials science and physics communities with access to both a knowledge base and analytical arsenal that cannot be found elsewhere in the world. The application of rock magnetic techniques pioneered and/or adopted by IRM faculty that are specifically designed for low temperature, nondestructive characterization of magnetic mineral recorders continues to find broad use both by the faculty at Minnesota and by U.S. and international geoscientists. Techniques have been developed to identify biogenic magnetic minerals in marine samples through low temperature remanence measurements. Other low temperature techniques have been used to identify superparamagnetic material produced during pedogenesis in loess-paleosol sequences and these data have been applied to regional paleoclimatic studies in China, central Europe and Alaska. Studies of high-resolution Holocene records of geomagnetic field variability found in Minnesota lacustrine sediments are being used to improve techniques for the accurate measurement of paleointensity, an important constraint for modeling geomagnetic field behavior. Studies utilizing the magnetic force microscope (MFM) are fundamental to our understanding of the fidelity of magnetic mineral recorders through time and their response to temperature, chemical and stress changes and provide valuable information to the magnetic media industry. Further, new collaborations of the IRM staff with archaeologists and microbiologists holds promise for constraining the timing of man's earliest agricultural practices in southern Arabia, understanding microbial life in extreme environments at depth within the Earth's crust, and detecting evidence for microbial activity in extraterrestrial samples, through the use of novel rock magnetic and paleomagnetic techniques and proxies.In terms of outreach, the IRM has been, and continues to be, perhaps the premier training ground for graduate students in applications of rock magnetic techniques to studies in tectonics, geomagnetic field behavior and paleoclimatology. State-of-the-art research and development at the IRM finds widespread dissemination through the IRM's heralded "Visiting Scholars" program, which brings researchers from around the world to Minnesota to utilize the instruments and develop symbiotic working relationships with the IRM staff. Further, the biannual Santa Fe conference advertises the successes of many of the unique instruments and techniques available at the IRM (i.e. Magnetic Property Measurement System, Mossbauer spectrometry, Alternating Gradient Field Magnetometer, Magnetic Force Microscope) and highlights the scientific advances in the field on an international scale.***