Acquisition of Equipment for Cosmogenic Nuclide Sample Preparation

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0004098KirchnerThis grant provides partial support to equip a cosmogenic nuclide sample preparation facility at the University of California, Berkeley. Professors James Kirchner and William Dietrich will be the principal users of this facility. The Department of Earth and Planetary Science has recently renovated and upgraded a 46 square meter (500 square foot) laboratory for cosmogenic nuclide sample preparation. This grant provides funds to outfit this laboratory for efficient preparation of 10Be and 26Al samples from geological materials. Equipment to be purchased under this grant includes an atomic absorption spectrophotometer, a high-throughput magnetic separator, an ultrapure water supply, ultrasonic baths, precision balances, and a centrifuge. A dedicated cosmogenic nuclide sample preparation facility will permit more efficient sample preparation, and thus higher sample throughput rates. This, in turn, will greatly aid ongoing research in several areas, including measurements of river bed erosion and debris flow incision, determination of catchment-scale chemical weathering rates, comparisons of long-term and present-day landscape erosion rates, and assessments of how climatic, topographic, and tectonic factors affect long-term rates of weathering and erosion.***