Equipment: MRI: Track 1 Acquisition of a Laser Ablation System for ICP-MS to Expand a Broad Range of Analytical Activities and Research Training in the Earth Sciences

该MRI奖资助激光消融(LA)系统与现有的电感耦合等离子体质谱仪(ICPMS)相结合。LA-ICPMS允许对非常小的区域(微米级)的固体地质或生物样品进行元素分析。LA将使联盟教职员工和学生以及来自外部机构的研究人员的研究计划成为可能。收购LA将极大地扩展我们解决古气候学、古环境和高温地球化学(包括火山学和地质年代学)的基本和应用问题的能力，以及它们与相关地质、地球化学、大气、水文和生态系统的联系。LA将考虑到拟议的研究活动所需的快速吞吐量和高空间分辨率。这种仪器将使实验室能够扩展其在地球化学方面的能力，并对促进几个地球科学教职员工及其学生的研究需求至关重要。该局将推进关于建立多指标古气候、古海洋学和古环境记录的研究，特别是：a)利用石笋建立温带和热带地区的气候记录；b)利用石笋和双壳贝壳调查历史污染事件；c)开发和调查生物碳酸盐中的元素替代指标，包括双壳贝壳和珊瑚。LA系统还将推进高温地球化学研究，项目包括岩浆混合、喷发前岩浆的挥发性含量以及火山岩和严重侵蚀山区的测温。LA将用于本科独立研究，这是本科课程的实验室组成部分，并将推进附近机构两名女性终身教职前教师的研究，并促进其他机构的新合作。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This MRI award funds a laser ablation (LA) system to couple with an existing Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer (ICP-MS). The LA-ICP-MS allows elemental analysis of very small areas (micron scale) of solid geological or biological samples. The LA will enable the research programs of Union faculty and students, as well as those of researchers from outside institutions. The acquisition of the LA will greatly expand our ability to address both basic and applied questions in paleoclimatology, paleoenvironments, and high-temperature geochemistry (including volcanology and geochronology), and their connection to related geological, geochemical, atmospheric, hydrologic, and ecological systems. The LA will allow for both rapid throughput and high spatial resolution that is required by the proposed research activities. This instrumentation will allow the lab to expand its capabilities in geochemistry, and is critical to advancing the research needs of several Geosciences faculty and their students. The LA will advance research on developing multiproxy paleoclimate, palaeoceanographic, and paleoenvironmental records, specifically to: a) utilize stalagmites to develop climate records in temperate and tropical regions; b) investigate historical pollution events using stalagmites and bivalve shells; and c) develop and investigate elemental proxies in biological carbonates including bivalve shells and corals. The LA system will also advance high-temperature geochemical research, with projects on magma mixing, volatile content of magmas prior to eruption, and thermometry in volcanic rocks and deeply eroded mountain belts. The LA will be used in undergraduate independent research, the lab components of undergraduate courses, and will advance the research of two female pre-tenure faculty at nearby institutions as well as foster new collaborations at other institutions.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.