Early Career: Acquisition of a MC-ICP-MS for Research and Education in U-series Geochemistry and Applications in Geosciences

该项目使获得最先进的多接收器电感耦合等离子体质谱仪（MC-ICP-MS）成为可能，以支持佛罗里达大学地质科学系的一组研究人员在地球和海洋科学的研究应用方面取得重大进展。 这种仪器有助于首席研究员的研究计划，她是一名早期职业女性，研究重点是铀系列地球化学，这是一种广泛用于确定过去气候和海平面变化研究中材料年龄的技术，时间尺度从人类生活到数千年。 这种MC-ICP-MS仪器允许开发具有高时间精度和精确度的海平面重建，以确定过去温暖气候期间冰盖退缩和海平面上升的速率和节奏。 这些重建可以与气候数据相结合，为未来几十年到几千年的海平面上升预测提供信息。 该仪器提供的额外功能将显著改善其他现有的研究计划，并在广泛的地球科学应用中实现新的研究路线。通过该项目获得的新MC-ICP-MS将使我们部门能够纳入新的研究人员和新的研究方向，这将提高我们的分析能力。 具体而言，主要的新功能将允许几个离子计数通道，包括多个高丰度灵敏度过滤器，以促进U系列测量的分析。 该仪器还将允许同时测量能力的U-Th-Pb-Hg在激光烧蚀分析U-Pb地质年代学的应用。 这些进展将影响地球和海洋科学以外的广泛学科的研究，包括人类学、化学、农业、古生物学、生物学、医学、工程学和法医学领域的现有合作。 仪器将用于培训学生和博士后学者支持的广泛的NSF计划。

This project is enabling the acquisition of a state-of-the-art multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) to support a team of researchers within the Department of Geological Sciences at the University of Florida to make significant advances for research applications in the Earth and Ocean Sciences. This instrumentation facilitates the research program of the lead investigator, who is an early career female with a research focus on Uranium-series geochemistry, a technique used widely to determine the age of materials in studies of past climate and sea level change on time scales from a human life to thousands of years. This MC-ICP-MS instrument allows the development of sea level reconstructions with high temporal accuracy and precision, to define the rates and tempo of ice sheet retreat and sea level rise during past warm climates. These reconstructions can be paired with climate data to inform future projections of sea level rise over the coming decades to millennia. Additional capabilities afforded by this instrument will significantly improve other existing research programs as well as enabling new lines of research in a wide range of Earth science applications. The new MC-ICP-MS acquired through this project will enable the incorporation of new investigators and new research directions within our department, as will improve our analytical capabilities. Specifically, the primary new capabilities will allow for several ion-counting channels, including multiple high abundance sensitivity filters to facilitate the analysis of U-series measurements. The instrumentation will also allow for simultaneous measurement capability of U-Th-Pb-Hg during laser ablation analyses for U-Pb geochronology applications. These advances, among others, will impact research in a wide range of disciplines beyond earth and ocean sciences, including existing collaborations within anthropology, chemistry, agriculture, paleontology, biology, medicine, engineering, and forensic science. The instrumentation will be used to train students and post-doctoral scholars supported by a wide range of NSF programs.