Laboratory Technician Support: Expanding the capacity for U-Pb geochronology at Princeton University

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An increase in understanding of how the Earth system operates in the present, and how it has evolved over billions of years, has led geoscientists to ask ever more precise questions about the timescales of geologic processes and the feedbacks between the ocean-atmosphere system, the biosphere, and the solid Earth. In order to provide quantitative answers to these questions, high-precision time constraints are required. Radiometric dating, or geochronology, is the most reliable way to provide such time constraints, and U-Pb geochronology is the most versatile method available. In order to meet the growing demand for geochronologic data in the Geosciences, this grant provides technical support for the U-Pb geochronology lab in the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. This will create a new position that will: 1) increase the lab's capacity to take on new projects and host additional external scientists, including faculty and graduate and undergraduates students; 2) maintain efficient operations of clean lab facilities and analytical equipment; 3) streamline knowledge transfer between incoming and outgoing graduate students and postdocs; 4) provide a more reliable means for method development and improvement of precision and accuracy in U-Pb geochronology; 5) improve the integration of laboratory research into undergraduate and graduate curriculum; and 6) assist in outreach efforts to bring the lab?s science to a broader community. Given the unquenchable thirst in the Geosciences for geochronology, additional technical support will help the Princeton lab do its part to fill the deficit between user demand and capacity of existing geochronology labs.This grant provides much-needed technical support within the U-Pb geochronology laboratory in the Department of Geosciences at Princeton University. U-Pb geochronology is the most broadly applied system for determining the rates of geologic processes, and current demand for high-precision ID-TIMS U-Pb dates far outweighs the capacity of geochronology labs to generate them. The U-Pb lab at Princeton University, overseen by PI Schoene, wishes to expand its operations in order to host more outside users and devote more time to technique development that is required to place high-precision U-Pb dates into petrologic and/or stratigraphic context. Research themes within Schoene's lab range from understanding the evolution of continents and volcanic systems, calibrating rates of climate and biologic change in the deep past through ashbed zircon geochronology of stratigraphic sections, measuring the flux of flood basalt eruptions and understanding their environmental impact, and increasing the precision and accuracy of geochronology of Lunar samples. Each of these topics includes externally-funded collaborators from outside of Princeton University that send students to carry out the work. The new technical support will expand the ability of the lab to train both internal and external users and, in conjunction with upcoming facilities expansion, will provide new opportunities for integration of TIMS and laser ablation ICPMS U-Pb geochronology. These efforts serve both the need for assessing and increasing the accuracy of resulting ages and how to interpret them as chronometers of a wide range of geologic processes.