Acquisition of a multi-collector mass spectrometer for the University of Wisconsin Rare Gas Gechronology Laboratory

该奖项将资助威斯康星大学的稀有气体多收集器质谱仪，致力于提高用于第四纪问题的40Ar/39Ar定年的精度、准确性和能力。在未来十年，主要研究人员（PI）的主要目标之一是开发高度校准的基于40Ar/ 39ar的地磁不稳定时间标度（GITS），该时间标度可以通过磁地层学在海洋和大陆沉积物中进行关联。对这些物质进行精确的40Ar/39Ar定年需要越来越多的同位素测量，通常是在贫钾熔岩上进行的，因此对大多数实验室的最佳技术提出了挑战。解决这一问题的一种方法是使用带有离子计数电子倍增器的新一代多收集器质谱仪。对地质年代学的潜在影响是巨大的，特别是在地质年代较年轻的末期。使用多重收集器的测量不仅比使用单一收集器的测量更精确，而且在不到一半大小的样品上，它们的测量速度可以快两倍以上。稀有气体地球年代学实验室已经建立了将其技术提供给更广泛的地球科学界的传统。这包括由NSF不同部门支持的多学科研究，包括地球科学（EAR）、海洋科学（OCE）、南极科学（ANT）和环境生物学（DEB）。到目前为止，来自威斯康星大学麦迪逊分校和其他10个机构的22名本科生、研究生和博士后已经接受了PI的培训。PI计划通过参与EARTHTIME网络作为国家“地质年代学节点”来继续这一教育承诺，欢迎来自不同背景的古生物学家，地层学家和学生在实验室工作，并获得用于确定精确年龄的方法和技术的第一手欣赏。EARTHTIME还涉及一项积极的运动，以提高公众对地质年代学重要性的认识。

0741794SingerThis award will fund a rare gas multi-collector mass spectrometer at the University of Wisconsin dedicated to improving the precision, accuracy, and capacity of 40Ar/39Ar dating applied to Quaternary problems. Development of a highly-calibrated 40Ar/39Ar-based geomagnetic instability timescale (GITS) that can be correlated within marine and continental sediments via magnetostratigraphy is among the primary objectives of the primary investigators (PI's) during the next decade. Precise 40Ar/39Ar dating of these materials demands ever increasing numbers of isotopic measurements, often on K-poor lavas, thereby challenging the best technology in most laboratories. One way to confront this issue involves using a new generation multi-collector mass spectrometer with ion counting electron multipliers. The potential impact on geochronology, particularly at the younger end of geologic time, is great. Not only are measurements using multi-collection more precise than is possible on a single collector instrument, but they can be done more than twice as rapidly on samples of less than half the size. The Rare Gas Geochronology Laboratory has established a tradition of making its technology available to the wider Earth Science community. This includes multidisciplinary research supported by a diverse group of NSF Divisions, including Earth Sciences (EAR), Ocean Sciences (OCE), Antarctic (ANT), and Environmental Biology (DEB). Thus far, twenty-two students at the undergraduate, graduate and post-doctoral levels from UW-Madison and ten other institutions have trained with the PI's. The PI's plan to continue this educational commitment by participating in the EARTHTIME network as a national "geochronology node" where paleontologists, stratigraphers, and students from diverse backgrounds will be welcome to work in the laboratory and gain a first-hand appreciation of the methods and technology employed to determine precise ages. EARTHTIME also involves an aggressive campaign to increase the general public's awareness of the importance of geochronology.