Continuation of a Facility: Institute for Rock Magnetism

9818704 BanerjeeThis赠款提供持续支持的运作，维护和岩石磁性研究所（磁）在明尼苏达大学的发展。 该平台是一种具有成本效益的手段，为美国和国际地球科学，材料科学和物理界提供了一个知识库和分析武器库，这在世界其他地方是找不到的。 岩石磁性技术的应用开创和/或通过专门为低温，磁性矿物记录仪的无损表征设计的岩石磁性技术的应用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。 已经开发了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。 其他低温技术已被用于识别黄土-古土壤序列中成土作用期间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。 对明尼苏达湖沉积物中发现的地磁场变化的高分辨率全新世记录的研究正被用来改进精确测量古强度的技术，古强度是模拟地磁场行为的一个重要制约因素。利用磁力显微镜（MFM）的研究是我们了解磁性矿物记录仪随时间变化的保真度及其对温度，化学和应力变化的响应的基础，并为磁介质行业提供有价值的信息。 此外，通过使用新的岩石磁性和古磁性技术和代理，地球科学院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半岛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，并检测外星样本中微生物活动的证据。在岩石磁性技术应用于构造学、地磁场行为和古气候学研究方面，该研究所可能一直是，并将继续是研究生的首要训练场。 明尼苏达大学最先进的研究和开发通过明尼苏达大学的“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带到明尼苏达州，利用这些仪器，并与明尼苏达大学的工作人员建立共生的工作关系。 此外，一年两次的圣达菲会议还表彰了许多独特的仪器和技术的成功（即磁性测量系统，穆斯堡尔谱仪，交变梯度场磁强计，磁力显微镜），并强调了国际范围内该领域的科学进步。

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.***