Collaborative Research: Stable strontium isotope ratios (88/86Sr) in abiotic and microbially mediated barite

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Results from the proposed research will generate novel isotope measurements from barite, a highly stable and widely-distributed mineral found in magmatic, metamorphic, and sedimentary rocks of all ages, as well as in soils, aerosol dust, and extraterrestrial material. Establishing the controlling parameters of stable Sr-isotopic fractionation in barite will open a new avenue for geological and environmental research including geochemical, hydrogeological, hydrothermal, and paleoenvironmental studies. This fundamental research will lay the groundwork for future studies in the earth sciences using measurements of mass dependent Sr isotopes in barite. Barite may be an ideal vehicle to address critical questions in the earth sciences, including early earth biogeochemistry, evidence of potential life in extraterrestrial samples, reconstruction of temperatures in formation fluids such as springs and seeps, water rock interactions, tracking provenances of atmospheric inputs into soils, and reconstructing global changes in Sr2+ budgets during earth?s past.Very few laboratories in the world have developed methods to measure stable Sr-isotope ratios; and work on this new stable isotopic system proposed here will provide a unique opportunity to contribute to the development of this new isotope system in its beginning stages. Graduate and undergraduate students will have the opportunity to work and interact in multiple laboratories on this research project (at Kent State Univ., USC, Univ. of Akron, UCLA, Univ. of Oklahoma) thus developing and mentoring research and analytical skills. They will conduct careful experiments, collect samples in the field at an established field site in western Oklahoma and interact with students involved in this project as well as field sites in western Colorado and northern Utah. Outreach activities in local high schools will be established through a published hands-on learning module which investigates fundamental concepts of the ?greenhouse effect? and will employ our current geology students to visit their old high schools and relay their excitement for the geosciences as a future career.