Laboratory Technician Support: For a new (U-Th)/He dating lab in the Department of Geology, UIUC

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Thermochronology is a vital tool in Earth systems science that allows geoscientists to quantify the thermal evolution of rocks through time. Many geologic processes perturb the temperatures of rocks in the upper crust including the uplift and erosion of mountain belts, hydrothermal fluid flow related to mineral resources, and the burial of rocks in regions that generate hydrocarbons. This project will help establish a new thermochronology laboratory at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), by providing funding for a laboratory technician to oversee the lab?s daily operations. This lab will focus on a particular type of thermochronology?(Uranium-Thorium)/Helium dating?and will be open to visiting researchers and collaborators from other scientific institutions around the country. These visitors will include undergraduate and graduate students who seek to further their training in an important field of geologic study. Despite the prevalence, promise, and demand for the (U-Th)/He dating method, only a handful of labs in the U.S. are currently designed and properly staffed to accept visiting researchers on a regular basis. The funding from this award will therefore allow greater access to a wider pool of (U-Th)/He researchers that seek to advance the technique and its applications.The (U-Th)/He dating method consists of a multiple step process, which the new technician will oversee. He or she will have responsibilities that consist of both training and assisting visitors in target mineral grain selection, preparation, and degassing methods necessary to obtain He measurements, and supervising U, Th, Sm, Ca, and Zr analysis of dissolved aliquots by ICP-MS. These methods require significant time commitments and by joining the UIUC lab, the technician will expand the lab?s research capabilities with increased sample through-put, and allow the lab to host additional PIs with funding to use thermochronology. This grant will allow the (U-Th)/He lab at UIUC to strengthen ongoing and develop new collaborations that include projects focused on: 1) The use of correlations between zircon (U-Th)/He age and effective uranium (eU) to constrain Proterozoic or ?deep-time? thermal histories for orogens and cratons, 2) The development of Fe-oxide (U-Th)/He dating in jasperoids from Carlin-Type Gold Deposits (CTGD) to constrain fluid processes related to ore-formation, and 3) Advancing the zircon (U-Th)/He method by parameterizing the process of radiation damage annealing in zircon. Additional projects with current or future external collaborators where the UIUC lab serves as the main center for (U-Th)/He dating will now be possible with this support.