Acquisition of Single-grain-luminescence-dating Instrument Systems

这项主要研究仪器奖支持在里诺的沙漠研究所（DRI）收购两个Riso自动化仪器系统，用于微克和单颗粒发光沉积物测年，该研究所是内华达州唯一的地质年代学实验室。每个系统都包括一个全自动、微聚焦、双激光、发光刺激设施和一个低危害、微型X射线发生器。这些设备预计将不断增加，支持古环境科学家之间的新合作，并为内华达州（DRI、内华达州矿业和地质局、里诺和拉斯维加斯的大学）和附近西部各州以及该地区的私营地球科学部门的学生提供新的研究培训机会。这些科学家和学生将能够在古地震学、新构造学、古气候学、第四纪地质学（包括北极和南极研究）、古水文学、地貌学、地质考古学和古人类学等领域的古环境研究中合作使用这些设备。对石英单颗粒储存发光的分析已被证明可以提供准确的埋藏日期因此，这项技术可以提供沉积物基质沉积的准确时间尺度（因此，相关的保存环境条件）在设置，否则已经困难或不可能的日期。这种测年应用的例子包括：测量新墨西哥州史前灌溉渠最后使用的时间;确定北冰洋海冰覆盖的历史;确定南极洲冰架崩塌的历史;以及为处理州和国家地震和洪水历史提供关键数据。

This Major Research Instrumentation award supports acquisition of two Riso automated instrument systems for microgram and single-grain luminescence sediment dating at the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Reno, operating the only geochronology laboratory in Nevada. Each of the systems includes a fully automated, micro-focusing, dual-laser, luminescence-stimulation facility and a low-hazard, mini-X-ray generator. The equipment is expected to grow present and support new collaborations among paleoenvironmental scientists, and to provide new opportunities for research training of students, within Nevada (at DRI, at the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology, and at the universities in Reno and Las Vegas) and within nearby western states, as well as the region's private geoscience sector. Such scientists and students will be able to collaborate in the use of the equipment for paleoenvironmental studies in fields such as paleoseismology, neotectonics, paleoclimatology, Quaternary geology (including Arctic and Antarctic studies), paleohydrology, geomorphology, geoarcheology, and paleoanthropology. Analyses of stored luminescence from single grains of quartz has been proven to provide accurate burial dates (last exposure to daylight) of grains in several classes of unheated sediments, from as young as a decade to as old as about 200,000 yrs. Thus, this technology can provide accurate timescales of sediment-matrix deposition (hence, of associated preserved environmental conditions) in settings that otherwise have been difficult or impossible to date. Examples of such dating applications include: measuring the time of last use of pre-historic irrigation canals in New Mexico; determining the history of sea-ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean; determining ice-shelf-collapse histories in Antarctica; and providing critical data for addressing state and national earthquake and flood histories.