Acquisition of an X-Ray Fluorescence Spectrometer for Geological and Environmental Analysis

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EAR-0135318LyonsA state-of-the-art X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometer will provide new elemental chemical analysis capabilities for a variety of Earth and environmental sciences research projects at the Ohio State University. The instrument will also be used by both undergraduate and graduate students as part of courses and their research projects with faculty. Some selected research projects that will use the new instrument are described below. Profs. W. Berry Lyons and Anne Carey and their students will investigate major sources of geochemical input into the world's oceans from suspended materials in rivers that may contribute a large portion of the sediment that enters the oceans. In order to understand ocean chemistry, the main sources of chemical species from natural and anthropogenic origins must be determined. Prof. David Elliot's research group will collect and analyze a igneous rocks in order to understand better the tectonic processes and transport of magma associated with initial Gondwana break-up. This research will contribute to understanding changes in earth history, specifically the break up and movement of continents. Prof. Samuel Traina's group will investigate the nature of adsorption of inorganic chemical contaminants onto soils and sediments. Understanding these processes is important because adsorption of pollutants, including radioactive waste, to soils and sediments could control their transport and effect on living organisms. Prof. Frank Schwartz, an Ohio Eminent Scholar, and his students, will study how inhomogeneities in surface soils affect the propagation of reaction fronts. This information will be used to understand better potential processes for remediation of polluted sites. Prof. Prabir Dutta's group will make measurements to support their development of senor arrays for toxic gases in high temperature environments, such as automobile engines. Prof. Lonnie Thompson and his research group, will analyze dust from ice cores that they have collected from throughout the world. In order to assess current or future global climate change, past history and the factors that caused climate change must be understood. The ice cores from polar ice sheets and high altitude tropical ice caps, collected by Thompson and co-workers, contain high-resolution records of climatic and environmental variation that can extend over thousands of years. The information gained from this research will be useful in assessing historical changes in global climate.