Collaborative Research: Analytical Techniques and Software: Development of CyberInfrastructure to Support Laser-Ablation ICP Mass Spectrometry

U-Pb激光剥蚀年代学已成为锆石定年最常用的方法。尽管这一工具广泛应用于许多地质问题，但在分析策略和数据简化协议方面几乎没有共识。结果是实验室间偏倚以及计算日期的误差低估和高估。这限制了我们比较来自不同实验室的结果的能力，也限制了对EarthChem等数据库的严格编译。该项目将通过开发网络基础设施工具来支持激光烧蚀ICP-质谱（LA-ICP-MS）来弥补这种情况。该项目将与国际社会协商，开发开放源码的免费软件，以严格的统计方法处理数据减少的所有方面，从计算比率到校正干扰和漂移。我们的方法将遵循用于开发类似的软件作为地球时间项目的一部分，并需要软件工程和地球化学领域的整合。由此产生的软件将消除实验室间偏差的大量来源，并作为一种教学工具，清楚地显示如何将原始比率转换成日期和不确定性，创建软件将LA-ICP-MS社区与正在开发的地球化学数据库连接起来，用于地质年代学和热年代学，将使这一重要技术的数据纳入更大的地球化学和地质学数据结构。这些数据将在广泛的领域发挥重要作用，如了解大陆的生长，进化变化的年表，早期原始人类进化的时间，以及气候和构造之间的联系。在计划工作的所有阶段，我们将涉及从本科生到博士后科学家的广泛的社会各界，以帮助开发下一代分析师和软件工程师。特别是，软件工程师和地球科学家之间的合作的系统化发展将得到推进，因为它产生了强大而可靠的工作流程工具。

U-Pb laser ablation geochronology has become the most commonly applied tool for dating zircons. Despite the widespread application of this tool to a host of geological problems, there is little consensus with regard to analytical strategies and data reduction protocols. The result is inter-laboratory bias and both under- and over-estimation of errors on calculated dates. This limits our ability to compare results from different labs and limits rigorous compilations from databases such as EarthChem. This project will remedy this situation by developing cyber infrastructure tools in support of Laser-Ablation ICP-Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The project will develop open-source, free, software in consultation with the international community to treat with statistical rigor all aspects of data reduction, from calculation of ratios to correction for interferences and drift. Our approach will follow that used in developing similar software as part of the EARTHTIME project and requires the integration of the fields of software engineering and geochemistry. The resulting software will eliminate large sources of interlaboratory bias and serve as a teaching tool showing clearly how raw ratios are converted into dates and uncertainties.Creating the software for connecting the LA-ICP-MS community with the developing EarthChem database for geochronology and thermochronology will provide the integration of data from this important technique into the larger data structure of geochemistry and geology. These data will play an important role in far-ranging fields such as understanding the growth of continents, chronology of evolutionary changes, timing of early hominid evolution, and linkages between climate and tectonics. During all phases of the planned work, we will involve a broad cross section of the community from undergraduates to post-doctoral scientists to help develop the next generation of analysts and software engineers. In particular, the systematic evolution of the collaboration between software engineers and earth scientists will be advanced as it produces robust and reliable workflow tools.