MRI: Acquisition of Instrumentation for Sediment Description, SIO Geological Core Repository

斯克里普斯海洋学研究所（SIO）地质收藏是美国最大的海洋地质储存库之一，为研究团体提供深海样本和沉积分析工具。该项目将支持SIO地质馆藏购买Avaatech核心扫描仪，该扫描仪可产生深海样品的非破坏性化学信息。作为研究过程的第一步，廉价的扫描仪提供了沉积物年龄和沉积物岩心的气候意义的快速信息。核心扫描仪将使储存库工作人员能够将数据分发给研究人员，这将帮助他们从SIO地质收藏中的数千个核心中获得最大价值。此外，研究人员将能够扫描他们自己的核心，使研究人员能够确定他们的研究重点在哪里。Avaatech XRF岩心扫描仪生成的地球化学数据将帮助大学生了解从气候和生态系统的历史记录到深海沉积记录中保存的考古和构造历史的一切。x射线荧光成像是国际研究界最常要求的服务，由SIO地质馆藏储存库提供。Aavatech岩心扫描仪将显著改善SIO收集的海洋沉积物岩心的数据收集。该仪器提供的新数据集包括磁化率、紫外线成像和z轴x射线荧光扫描，其角度与岩心的长轴不同。同时处理三个核心的能力将显著提高吞吐量。SIO地质馆藏的用户基础包括气候研究、沉积学、构造学、地球科学教育、海洋考古学和保护生物学方面的研究人员。该仪器的一个研究项目是通过海洋沉积物岩心研究南极冰盖的历史和南大洋的动力学。另一个资助项目利用JOIDES Resolution 100巡航期间收集的样本，调查南极环极流北缘的海洋学变化和南美大陆的气候变化。美国地质调查局的研究人员建议使用Aavatech核心扫描仪来分析加利福尼亚沿海和加利福尼亚湖泊历史记录之前的地震记录。湖泊记录还将用于重建过去10万年来加州的干旱、洪水和火灾。XRF数据还将揭示地中海沉积物岩心的环境历史，通过定位年代学上重要的特征，如可以用于tephra年代学的年代火山灰。最后，该工具将广泛用于各种公共推广，高中和大学水平的教育之旅，模块和学生研究项目。例如，Aavatech仪器将成为正在进行的gepathath培训项目的核心工具。SIO GeoPaths项目利用海上经验，向来自不同背景的本科生介绍地球科学研究的整个周期，从巡航计划到在SIO收集材料的巡航后工作。新仪器将保持SIO地质收藏不仅是西海岸首屈一指的海洋地质样本档案，而且是海洋地质和环境研究的教育中心。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) Geological Collections is one of the largest marine geological repositories in the US and provides the research community access to deep sea samples as well as tools for sedimentary analysis. The project will support the SIO Geological Collections to buy an Avaatech Core scanner that produces non-destructive chemical information of deep sea samples. The scanner inexpensively provides rapid information on sediment age and the climatological significance of sediment cores as a first step in the research process. The Core Scanner will enable repository staff to distribute data to researchers that will help them get the most value from the thousands of cores in the SIO Geological Collections. In addition, researchers will be able to have their own cores scanned, allowing investigators to determine where to focus their research attention. Geochemical data produced by the Avaatech XRF core scanner will help university students understand everything from the historical record of climate and ecosystems to the archaeological and tectonic history preserved in the deep-sea sedimentary record. X-ray Fluorescence imaging is the most frequently requested service to the international research community that is provided by the SIO Geological Collections repository. The Aavatech Core Scanner will significantly improve data collection on marine sediment cores held in the SIO collection. New data sets provided by the instrument include magnetic susceptibility, UV imaging, and z-axis x-ray florescence scanning at angles off the long axis of a core. The capability to process three cores at once will enhance throughput significantly. The user-base for the SIO Geological Collections includes researchers in climate research, sedimentology, tectonics, geoscience education, marine archaeology, and conservation biology. One of the research projects enabled by this instrument is a study of Antarctic Ice Sheet history and Southern Ocean dynamics from marine sediment cores. Another funded project investigates oceanographic changes at the northern margin of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current and climate variability on the South American continent using samples collected during a JOIDES Resolution 100 Cruise. Researchers at the US Geological Survey propose to use the Aavatech Core Scanner to analyze records of earthquakes predating the historic record in Coastal California and California lakes. Lake records will also be used to reconstruct past droughts, floods, and fire in California over the past 100,000 years. XRF data will also reveal the environmental history of Mediterranean sediment cores by locating chronologically-important features like dated volcanic ashes that can be used in tephra chronology. Finally, the instrument will be used in a wide variety of public outreach, high school, and university-level education tours, modules and student research projects. For instance, the Aavatech instrument will be a central tool for an on-going GeoPaths training project. The SIO GeoPaths program uses at-sea experiences to introduce undergraduates from diverse backgrounds to the whole cycle of geoscience research, ranging from cruise planning to post-cruise work at SIO on the collected material. The new instrument will maintain the SIO Geological Collection as not only a premier West Coast archive of marine geological samples, but also as education center for marine geology and environmental research.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.