Facility Support: GeoSoilEnviroCARS: A National Resource for Earth, Planetary, Soil and Environmental Science Research at the APS

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This award provides operational support for GeoSoilEnviroCARS (GSECARS), a national multi-user facility for frontier research in the earth sciences using synchrotron radiation at the Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory. Research enabled by the GSECARS facility addresses quality-of-life issues such as carbon sequestration, environmental remediation, properties of nanomaterials, and earthquake generation. The unique capabilities of the APS and GSECARS allow groundbreaking experiments to be conducted in research areas relevant to the NSF-Earth Science mission including the nature of the deep Earth and giant planets, properties of non-crystalline and nano-crystalline materials at high pressure, evolution of volcanic systems, reactions occurring at mineral-water interfaces, biogeochemical cycling and climate, and flow dynamics of fluids and solids. GSECARS provides a research environment where users receive expert assistance in planning and conducting experiments and in analyzing data. This collaborative mode of operation, allowing the facility to be readily accessible to students and synchrotron radiation novices, has a major impact on sustaining the nation?s cadre of scientists in this field. GSECARS provides earth scientists with access to the high-brilliance hard x-rays from this third-generation synchrotron light source. All principal synchrotron-based analytical techniques in demand by earth scientists are being brought to bear on earth science problems: high-pressure/high-temperature crystallography and spectroscopy using the diamond anvil cell; high-pressure/high-temperature crystallography and imaging using the large-volume press; powder, single crystal and interface diffraction; inelastic x-ray scattering; x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy; x-ray fluorescence microprobe analysis; and microtomography. GSECARS develops advanced hardware and software that benefits many accelerator facilities worldwide. GSECARS is the world's foremost synchrotron-based facility dedicated to serving the needs of the earth sciences community.