MRI: Acquisition of 40Ar/39Ar Facilities at NM Tech

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This award to New Mexico Tech will allow purchase and construction of a new generation noble gas mass spectrometer and gas extraction system, respectively. Technology for noble gas systems has remained stagnant for ~25 years, but very recently advances in mass spectrometry have stimulated specific excitement in the geochronological community as well as the earth sciences in general. Each technological advance that allows investigation of time and rate processes with elevated precision and accuracy at finer and finer scale yields a significant leap forward in understanding major earth processes. With this new NSF support, NM Tech is fully equipped to participate in this forward progress. New Mexico Tech will continue strong support for graduate and undergraduate research in geochronology and will also continue it's open-door policies to provide state-of-the-art data and expertise to a wide spectrum of students and collaborators from outside NM Tech. Developing synergy through a range of users and fulfilling community-wide advancement of geochronological sciences through NSF sponsored facilities such as EARTHTIME and EARTHSCOPE will remain a priority for NM Tech and will occupy a significant part of the effort for the new instrumentation.