Early Career: Technical support for a uranium-series isotope geochemistry laboratory focused on Earth?s climate and surface processes

我们对地球气候演变和地表过程的理解的进展在很大程度上取决于地球物质的绝对年代测定。在对过去气候变化的研究中，过去几十万年的高精度年龄测定支持了确定变化速度和测试气候事件之间的时间关系的努力。该奖项为一个早期职业研究人员的实验室提供技术支持，该实验室将允许快速开发基于放射性同位素的测年方法，以优化精度和效率，并促进为各种合作项目开发与精确和准确的年龄相关的过去气候的高分辨率记录。高精度数据在整个地球科学中的更多应用将提供对海洋沉积物累积速率、风化和沉积物迁移的时间尺度以及现代海洋中痕量金属循环的关键见解。除了大大加快早期教师的分析、协作和外展活动之外，技术人员对方法开发和新用户培训的贡献还将使其他几名内部和外部研究人员更多地获得尖端分析设施。此外，该技术人员将促进研究组内外的研究生和博士后研究人员的实践培训，帮助准备下一代分析员，并扩大对高精度同位素分析的接触。这名技术人员将促进同位素分析，作为本科课程的一部分，为学生提供第一手的地球化学研究经验。技术人员将提供培训和指导，以确保这些本科生从他们在实验室的时间获得最大好处。拟设技术人员管理的分析设施将为地球科学界提供重要资源，大大增加为地球科学研究提供精确和准确的铀-钍年龄和铀系列同位素数据。这位技术人员促成的有针对性的方法开发将有助于提高现有铀系列应用的效率和精度，并有助于开发涉及铀系列的新工具。具体地说，该奖项资助一名实验室技术人员三年的支助，该实验室技术人员将促进开发同位素地球化学实验室，将铀系列同位素应用于第四纪地质年代学、古气候和地球表面历史的研究。该技术人员还将通过制定有针对性的方法和收集试点数据，特别侧重于改进利用铀系列不平衡来估计风化和沉积物迁移的时间尺度，推动铀系列同位素系统在地球系统其他部分的应用方面取得进展。此外，通过技术人员的贡献促进的协作将进一步扩大拟议支持的影响。这位技术人员将与其他实验室合作，相互校准示踪剂和分析程序，帮助建立一个地质年代学设施，将铀-钍和铀-铅地质年代学整合在一起，将详细的气候记录推回到数百万年前，而不是铀-钍地质年代学的限制。此外，该技术人员在开发新的分析方案和培训外部用户方面的贡献将使该设施的能力从铀系列扩展到其他同位素系统，包括铬、铁和Hf，直接使感兴趣的研究人员受益，从地壳演化到海洋中的痕量金属循环。

Advances in our understanding of the evolution of Earth's climate and surface processes depend in large part upon absolute dating of Earth materials. In studies of past climate changes, high-precision age determinations during the last several hundred thousand years undergird efforts to determine rates of change and test temporal relationships between climate events. This award provides technical support for an early career researcher's laboratory which will allow rapid development of radioisotope based dating methods that optimize precision and efficiency, and foster the development of high-resolution records of past climate tied to precise and accurate ages for a wide variety of collaborative projects. Additional applications of high-precision data throughout the Earth sciences will provide key insights into marine sediment accumulation rates, timescales of weathering and sediment transport, and trace metal cycling in the modern ocean. In addition to substantially accelerating the analytical, collaborative and outreach activities of an early career faculty member, the technician's contributions to method development and new user training would benefit several other internal and external researchers by increasing their access to cutting-edge analytical facilities. In addition, the technician will facilitate hands-on training for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers both within and outside of the research group, helping prepare the next generation of analysts and broadening exposure to high-precision isotope analysis. The technician will facilitate isotopic analyses as a part of an undergraduate course that gives students first-hand geochemistry research experience. The technician will offer training and mentorship to ensure that these undergraduates receive the maximum benefit from their time in the lab. The analytical facility managed by the proposed technician will provide an important resource for the geoscience community, substantially increasing the availability of precise and accurate uranium-thorium ages and uranium-series isotope data for Earth science research. The targeted method development enabled by the technician will help increase the efficiency and precision of existing uranium-series applications and contribute to the development of new tools involving uranium-series.Specifically, this award funds three years of support for a laboratory technician who will facilitate the development of an isotope geochemistry lab for the application of uranium-series isotopes to studies of Quaternary geochronology, paleoclimate and Earth surface history. The technician will also enable advances in applications of uranium-series isotope systems to other parts of the Earth system through targeted method development and the collection of pilot data, focused in particular on improving the use of uranium-series disequilibrium to estimate timescales of weathering and sediment transport. In addition, collaborations facilitated by the technician's contributions will further extend the impact of the proposed support. The technician will work with other labs to intercalibrate tracers and analytical procedures, helping to establish a geochronology facility that integrates the uranium-thorium and uranium-lead geochronometers to push detailed climate records past the limits of uranium-thorium geochronology back to several million years. In addition, the technician's contributions to developing new analytical protocols and training external users will broaden the facility's capabilities beyond uranium-series to other isotope systems including chromium, iron, and hafnium, directly benefiting researchers with interests ranging from crustal evolution to trace metal cycling in the ocean.