Acquisition of Automated, Gas-Source Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer

该合同提供了购买一台自动化、多收集器、气源同位素比质谱仪所需资金的一半，该质谱仪将在加州理工学院地质和行星科学部安装和运行。加州理工学院正在提供所需的剩余资金。地质和行星科学司正在进行的研究需要对天然岩石、矿物、水样和有机材料进行大量的稳定同位素分析。其中一些天然样品的数量非常少，而新仪器需要对大量样品进行微量分析。分析的一个主要研究重点将是利用氧、氢和碳的同位素特征来破译地壳中水-岩石相互作用的历史，并研究矿物和共存的水溶液之间同位素交换的详细机制。

This award provides one-half the funds required for the acquisition of an automated, multi-collector, gas-source isotope ratio mass spectrometer that will be installed and operated in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. Caltech is providing the remaining funds needed. Research in progress in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences requires a very large number of stable isotope analyses of natural rocks, minerals, water samples, and organic materials. Some of these natural samples are available only in very small quantities, and the new instrument is needed to perform microanalyses on a large number of samples. A major research emphasis of the analyses will be in the use of the isotopic signatures of oxygen, hydrogen and carbon to decipher the history of water-rock interactions in the Earth's crust and in investigations of the detailed mechanisms of isotopic exchange between minerals and coexisting aqueous solutions.