Acquisition of a Laser Fluorination Vacuum Line for Oxygen Isotope Ratio Measurement

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9910129LarsonThis grant provides partial support of the costs of acquiring a laser fluorination vacuum line for the stable isotope laboratory at Washington State University. The PI, Peter Larson, has utilized stable isotope analyses of silicate minerals and rocks in his research on high temperature geologic systems for the past 20 years. In addition to Larson, Professors John Wolff (Co-PI) and Larry Meinert at Washington State University, and Dr. Dennis Geist at the University of Idaho, together with their graduate students, will utilize the laser fluorination line in their respective research programs.The addition of a laser fluorination system at WSU will allow for the analyses of samples an order of magnitude smaller than can be currently analyzed with the lab's conventional fluorination system. Additionally, refractory minerals which have been traditionally difficult to measure with a conventional set-up can be analyzed easily with the new apparatus. The laser line will be constructed on-site and will deliver gas samples directly into an existing gas source mass spectrometer bellows. The new system will be used in an ongoing research project that is investigating the evolution of ocean island basalts on Tenerife, Canary Islands. Preliminary oxygen isotope data for phonolitic magmas from Tenerife suggest that assimilation of altered wall rocks is important in their evolution. However, this work is now limited by our inability to analyze small, individual phenocrysts from the nearly-aphyric basanites and phonolites. This facility will also be used in other ongoing research projects that focus on the sources and evolution of ore-forming hydrothermal fluids, magmatism and its relationship to tectonism and crustal evolution in continental environments, and paleoclimate studies of Tertiary paleosols in the Pacific Northwest. ***