Acquisition of a Uranium-Daughter Laboratory at the Berkeley Geochronology Center

在国家科学基金会的支持下，伯克利地质年代学中心将购买一台具有多个收集器的最先进的高丰度灵敏度热电离质谱仪(TIMS)，用于铀系列和U-Th-Pb地质年代学。所需的精确度和小样本量将使该系统能够分析样本并解决使用更标准的仪器无法解决的问题。这些技术在20,000到500,000岁的范围内特别准确，正是在这一时期发生了许多重要事件，包括解剖学和行为学上的现代人的出现。许多落入这一时期的遗址用最可靠的方法--放射性碳法和Ar-Ar法--是不可测年的，提供这一TIMs不仅将为古人类学家提供有价值的信息，而且将为地质学家、地球物理学家和生态学家提供有价值的信息。这些技术可以应用于一系列成壤物质、洞穴或钙华碳酸盐、牙齿/骨骼和火山锆石。其中许多都存在于古人类学的情况下，分析牙齿的能力意味着这些技术可以直接应用于感兴趣的标本，而不限于相关的地质材料。伯克利地质年代学中心将提供配套资金，建设一个新的高质量清洁实验室和一个新的TIMS实验室。由此产生的这些服务将在广泛的科学领域产生直接和重大的好处。

With National Science Foundation support the Berkeley Geochronology Center will purchase a state-of-the-art high abundance sensitivity thermal ionization mass spectormeter(TIMS) with multiple collectors, to be used for Uranium series and U-Th-Pb geochronology. The precision and small sample size required will permit the system to analyze samples and address questions which are not possible using more standard instrumentation. The techniques are particularly accurate in the 20,000 to 500,000 age range and it was during this period that many important events, including the emergence of anatomically and behaviorally modern humans occurred. Many sites which fall in this time period are undatable by the most reliable methods - radiocarbon and argon-argon - and provision of this TIMS will provide information of value not only to paleoanthropologists but to geologists, geophysists and ecologists. These techniques can be applied to a range of pedogenic material, speleothem or travertine carbonate, teeth/bones and volcanic zircons. Many of these are present in paleoanthropological situations and the ability to analyze teeth means that the techniques can be applied directly to specimens of interest and are not limited to associated geological materials. The Berkeley Geochronology Center will provide matching funds to construct a new high-quality clean laboratory and a new TIMS laboratory. The resultant servicves which these provide will have a direct and major benefit in a wide range of sciences.