Facility Support: Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at PRIME Lab

普渡大学稀有同位素测量实验室（PRIME实验室）是一个国家级多用户设施，致力于使用加速器质谱法（AMS）测量宇宙放射性核素。该合同将为该设施提供管理和运营支持。重要的地质过程发生在各种各样的时间尺度上。灾难性的变化，如大规模的泥石流或洪水，发生在短时间尺度上，但其他变化，如长期的景观侵蚀或冰川循环，发生在更长时间尺度上，长达数千年至数百万年。尽管如此，这些变化在景观演变中起着主导作用，并直接影响着全世界人口的福祉。测量这些过程的速率并重建它们的年表是一项挑战，地球科学家使用许多工具从地质档案中提取这些信息。宇宙射线产生的核素，特别是通过加速器质谱法测量的核素，现在通常用于获得年表和确定重大地质过程的侵蚀速率。在过去的十年中，这些核素被用来重建冰川年表，从而提供了过去气候的记录。它们也被用来显示构造活动和侵蚀速率之间的联系。美国数十所大学的博士生和研究人员参与了这些研究。在PRIME实验室，他们不仅学习如何进行样品的物理和化学制备，而且还参与PRIME实验室加速器质谱系统上样品的测量。PRIME的学生、教师和专业人员之间的互动促进了与地质学家、化学家和物理学家的互动，提供了一个近乎独特的机会，扩大了研究项目重点以外的教育机会。在NSF的持续支持下，PRIME实验室将继续利用更大加速器的独特功能，为地球科学社区带来利益。鉴于美国多同位素设施的数量有限，我们预计地球科学界所需的测量（和样品制备）数量将会增加。除了更多的常规测量外，我们是美国唯一一家使用充气磁铁推进最先进技术的实验室。我们已经证明了该仪器对10Be、26Al和36Cl，特别是26Al的有效性。在接下来的五年里，PRIME实验室将通过提高常规测量核素的生产率，以及开发新的测量技术和利用这些进步的应用，继续推进宇宙核素在地球科学中的应用。

The Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory (PRIME Lab) is a national, multi-user facility dedicated to the measurement of cosmogenic radionuclides using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). This award will provide management and operations support for this facility. Significant geologic processes occur over a wide variety of time-scales. Catastrophic changes, large debris flows or floods, occur over short time-scales but other changes, such as long-term erosion of landscape or glacial cycles occur over longer time-scales, thousands to millions of years. These changes nonetheless play a dominant role in landscape evolution and directly impact the welfare of human populations world-wide. Measuring the rates of these processes and reconstructing a chronology for them is a challenge and geoscientists employ a number of tools to extract this information from the geologic archive. Cosmic-ray produced nuclides, especially those measured by accelerator mass spectrometry, are now routinely used to obtain chronologies and determine erosion rates for significant geologic processes. In the last decade these nuclides have been used to reconstruct glacial chronologies, which in turn provides a record of past climates. They have also been used to show linkages between tectonic activity and erosion rates. The pursuit of these studies has involved PhD students and researchers from dozens of universities within the US. At PRIME Lab they not only learn how to perform the physical and chemical preparation of samples, but they also participate in the measurement of their samples on the PRIME Lab accelerator mass spectrometry system. The interaction between students, faculty, and professional staff at PRIME facilitates interaction with geologists, chemists, and physicists, providing a near unique opportunity to expand the educational opportunity beyond the focus of the research projects. With continued NSF support, PRIME Lab will continue utilizing the unique capabilities of a larger accelerator for the benefit of the geoscience community. Given the limited number of multi-isotope facilities in the US, we anticipate growth in the number of measurements (and sample preparation) required by the geoscience community. In addition to more routine measurements, we are the only laboratory in the US positioned to advance the state-of-the-art using a gas-filled-magnet. We have already demonstrated the efficacy of the instrumentation for 10Be, 26Al, and 36Cl, especially 26Al. For the next five years, PRIME Lab will continue to advance the application of cosmogenic nuclides in the geosciences through increased productivity of routinely measured nuclides and by the development of new measurement technologies and applications harnessing these advances.