Upgrade of Sedimentary Geology Preparation and Marine Sedimentary Biogeochemistry Laboratories

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0930002Sageman"This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5)." This award will provide funding to replace equipment for sedimentary geology and biogeochemistry. The main items which will be improved or replaced are a rock saw, shatterbox, centrifuge, ovens, a balance, coulometer and spectrophotometer. All instruments slated for augmentation are older with increasing maintenance costs and vendor discontinuance. The equipment will be used in the newly-renovated Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Northwestern. The PIs will use these instruments for research in the broad theme of marine sedimentary biogeochemistry. The PIs investigate the ocean-atmosphere evolution through Earth?s history using complimentary methods on sediment carbon, sulfur, iron and phosphate. These elements and their isotopes provide a glimpse into Earth?s redox histories and the PIs will focus on the Neoptroterozoic transition. Elemental abundances and isotope ratios will also be used to study ocean anoxia over time (Paleozoic and Mesozoic). The impacts on elemental cycling and organic carbon burial rates will be assessed. Because these instruments are so fundamental to sedimentary geology studies, their impact will span from undergraduate to graduate students in the department. The iLabs program, which exposes high school science students to geochemical laboratory techniques, will also benefit from this acquisition. Projects will also allow Northeaster Illinois University (NEIU), a large minority-attended campus, to send students who will have access to the new instrumentation. General paleoclimate research themes are of high societal importance. ***