MRI: ACQUISITION OF A NEW GENERATION THERMAL IONIZATION MASS SPECTROMETER

NSF/MRI资金将用于购买新一代多收集器热电离质谱计。这台新仪器将取代已有20年历史的旧仪器，将用于锡拉丘兹大学和纽约州立大学奥斯威戈分校在构造、岩石学、沉积学、水文学和古气候学研究方面的高精度U-Pb年代学和Nd锶、PbLi同位素示踪研究。更广泛的意义和重要性对于地球科学中的几乎所有领域来说，确定地球材料的同位素组成的重要性怎么强调都不为过。例如，随着每一代新的科学仪器的出现，我们确定岩石精确年龄的能力不断提高。一个发生在1亿多年前的地质事件现在可以确定到10万年内。这种能力使我们能够调查地球历史上的关键事件，例如检验大规模火山喷发与大规模物种灭绝同时发生的假设，评估气候变化是否因重大造山事件而发生，以及将相当远的距离上的含油沉积层进行关联。新一代质谱仪的获得使我们获得了前所未有的能力来确定重大地质事件的时间，从而更好地了解超过40亿年的地球历史。新仪器还将被广泛用于培训下一代地球科学家，以收集解决能源、气候变化、自然灾害和水资源问题所需的地球化学数据。

NSF/MRI funds will be used to purchase a new generation multi-collector thermal ionization mass spectrometer. The new instrument, which will replace a 20 year old instrument, will be used for high precision U-Pb geochronology, and Nd, Sr, Pb, Li isotope tracer studies in tectonic, petrologic, sedimentologic, hydrologic, and paleoclimatologic research at Syracuse University and the State University of New York at Oswego. Broader Significance and ImportanceIt is difficult to overemphasize the importance of determining the isotopic composition of Earth materials to virtually all fields within the geosciences. For instance, our ability to determine precise ages of rocks has continued to increase with every new generation of scientific instrument. A geologic event that occurred over 100 million years ago can now be determined to within 0.1 million years. This ability allows us to investigate critical events in Earth history, such as testing the hypothesis that massive volcanic eruptions coincided with mass extinctions, assessing if climate change occurred in response to major mountain building events, and to correlate oil-bearing sedimentary strata over significant distances. The acquisition of a new generation mass spectrometer gives us an unprecedented ability to determine the timing of major geological events and thus understand better over four billion years of Earth history. The new instrument will also be extensively used to train the next generation of Earth scientists to collect the geochemical data needed to address issues of energy resources, climate change, natural hazards, and water resources.