Acquisition of a high-field variable-temperature SQUID magnetometer

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This Division of Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities Program grant supports acquisition of a high field, variable temperature Magnetic Properties Measurement System that will be housed within the Institute for Rock Magnetism (IRM) at the University of Minnesota. The instrument will support studies of the magnetic properties and behavior of geologic materials over a wide range of temperatures and in variable applied fields with application to study of plate tectonics and reconstructing Earth’s pre-historic climate and environmental conditions. The instrumentation will support hands-on student training in methods of natural material magnetic analysis and have broad impact for U.S. academic research in rock and paleomagnetism given its incorporation within an existing NSF supported community facility.The magnetic properties and behavior of geologic materials at low temperatures and in variable applied fields are of fundamental importance in rock magnetism and paleomagnetism: they offer unique insights into the carriers and origins of natural remanence, and thus into important related geophysical phenomena ranging from core evolution to lithospheric dynamics. Acquisition of a highly sensitive superconducting quantum interference device based magnetometer in which samples can be subjected to high magnetic field (up to 7-Tesla) and a wide range of temperatures (from 1.8 to 1000 K) will add a new capability at the University of Minnesota Institute for Rock Magnetism. Given broad geoscience community access to the instrument through the IRM, a range of fundamental Earth materials research will be supported including studies of the fundamental physical behavior of magnetic minerals that provides information on the mixtures of magnetic minerals and distributions of particle sizes in natural bulk samples with applications in paleoenvironmental research and in characterization of paleomagnetic remanence carriers. Research on deep Earth processes, lithospheric dynamics, iron cycling in the environment, biogeomagnetism and planetary science will benefit from this acquisition.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.