ACQUISITION OF A HANDHELD XRF SPECTROMETER TO ENHANCE SEDIMENTARY AND PALEOENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH

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This NSF award will be used to acquire a handheld X-ray fluorescence (HHXRF) spectrometer to support ongoing scientific research and outreach activities. For geoscientists, rocks represent fundamental sources of data; the problem is that rocks don't give up their secrets easily. To extract important information, analytical instrumentation is often essential. Over a half million linear feet of rock core from the Michigan Basin, a major hydrocarbon province, is housed and curated at the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education (MGRRE) on the campus of Western Michigan University. In the past decade, MGRRE has become a data repository used by academics and industry professionals, as well as a training ground for future geoscientists across the region. The goal of MGRRE is to build geologic knowledge and enhance public education through scientific investigations, scientific outreach, and the acquisition and application of the latest advances in technology. At present, numerous scientific questions concerning the geologic development of the Michigan Basin and its hydrocarbon resources persist and cannot be answered because conventional datasets have been exhausted. The HH XRF instrumentation funded by this award will be used to collect high-resolution geochemical datasets from which to further scientific investigations of Michigan Basin geology. This project will impact a number of related, and ongoing research and educational activities including: (i) providing a much needed revitalization and increased analytical capability to MGRRE, a regional, multi-user geoscience research and education facility, (ii) helping further scientific studies pertaining to the development of sedimentary basins by providing the capability to acquire large geochemical datasets, (iii) providing important geologic data to assist in joint academia-industry partnerships that investigate the hydrocarbon resources and reservoirs of the Michigan Basin, and (iv) delivering much needed resources to enhance existing K-12 outreach efforts to expose the regional community to the unique and diverse geologic history of the Michigan Basin, local industry, and industry-related projects.Research in the Michigan Basin has focused primarily on pre-existing datasets and conventional subsurface data analysis. These efforts have provided a solid foundation toward a better understanding of the sedimentary evolution of the Michigan Basin. The multitude of cores and core-related resources available at the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education (MGRRE) have made it possible to conduct several types of stratigraphic and basin dynamics studies, which represent an important first step toward understanding the scope and duration of the subtle eustatic, tectonic and climatic controls on the evolution of the Michigan Basin. However, many of these research topics have proven difficult to assess without much-improved analytical capabilities. Simply said, the existing datasets currently at our disposal have been exhausted and the new analytical instrumentation supported by this NSF award will be critical for generating critical geochemical datasets in our aim to better understand the stratigraphic and paleoenvironmental evolution of the region.