MRI: Acquisition of a Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS) for high-precision isotopic research of the Earth's mantle, crust and oceans

该合同将提供资金用于购买现代热电离质谱计(TIMS)仪器。TIMS仪器将构成地球基本过程研究的一个组成部分，并将成为向本科生和研究生教授各种核心原理的宝贵工具，包括样品制备技术、质谱学以及数据解释和分析。现有的仪器设施在支持外部用户、提供样品制备、计量和通过短期课程让科学界参与方面提供教学和培训方面有很强的历史。新的TIMS仪器将服务于地球科学、地理和考古学的学生和教职员工，并将为来自该地区至少8所不同学院和大学的合作研究人员、学生和博士后研究员提供培训和数据。其中许多大学是本科生和/或西班牙裔服务机构。新的TIMS仪器将转变机构研究能力，进行高精度同位素测量，以开展由NSF资助的研究，主题包括大陆地壳变质和融化的时间尺度，地幔储集层的年龄和起源，早期地球分异的时间尺度，大洋中脊系统的岩浆过程，并重建海洋环流和气候变化的变化，范围从千年到地质时间尺度。新的TIMS仪器的到来将与一个新的、专用的清洁实验室设施和一个单独的、气候控制的仪表室的建成同时进行。该奖项的所有五位首席研究员目前都有NSF资助的研究(地球科学、海洋科学、极地计划)，这些研究将立即和广泛地使用新的TIMS仪器。

This award will provide funds to acquire a modern Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS) instrument. The TIMS instrument will form an integral component of research into fundamental Earth processes and will be an invaluable tool for teaching a variety of core principles to undergraduate and graduate students, including techniques for sample preparation, mass spectrometry, and data interpretation and analysis. Existing instrumental facilities have a strong history of supporting external users and providing teaching and training in sample preparation, metrology and engaging the scientific community through short-courses. The new TIMS instrument will serve students and faculty in Earth science, geography and archaeology, and will provide training and data to collaborating researchers, students and postdoctoral fellows from at least eight different colleges and universities in the region, many of which are undergraduate and/or Hispanic-serving institutions.The new TIMS instrument will transform institutional research capabilities for making high-precision isotopic measurements to carry-out NSF-funded research addressing themes including the timescales of metamorphism and melting of continental crust, the ages and origins of mantle reservoirs, time-scales of early-Earth differentiation, magmatic processes at mid-ocean ridge systems, and reconstruction of changes in ocean circulation and climate variability ranging from millennial to geologic time scales. The arrival of the new TIMS instrument will coincide with completion of a new, dedicated clean laboratory facility and a separate, climate-controlled instrument room. All five principle investigators on this award currently have NSF-funded research (Earth Sciences, Ocean Sciences, Polar Programs) that will make immediate and extensive use of the new TIMS instrument.