Early Career: Acquisition of a laser ablation system to enable new constraints on continental crust, dinosaurs, and ore deposits

本项目旨在利用激光烧蚀技术了解地球系统的三个基本方面：1)地球-S大陆的起源和演化，2)化石骨材料的保存及其在地球-S古气候方面的应用，以及3)经济矿床的来源和发展。与国家利益特别相关的是S项目，该项目旨在减少恐龙化石骨骼偷猎，并开发新的方法来了解经济上可行的金属矿藏的来源。该奖项还为三名早期职业科学家提供了重要的分析支持，其中包括两名女性，其中一名是西班牙裔。最后，该奖项将帮助建立一个新的实验室，促进本科生和研究生地球科学家在适用于了解地球环境的尖端分析技术方面的教育。该奖项将有助于建立阿肯色大学？试验设施(痕量元素和放射性同位素实验室)。该奖项提供的激光消融能力将被用于开发常规和分流分析协议，用于辅助相、化石骨骼和硫化物，利用S实验室现有的多收集器和四极等离子体质谱仪器。该实验室将专注于三个主要目标：1)利用副相(如独居石、锆石和钛矿)Th-U-Pb岩石年代学来约束大陆地壳深部熔融和变形过程中发生的变质反应；2)了解脊椎动物的埋藏学及其在约束古气候和古生态方面的作用；以及3)通过对铅同位素、铜同位素和硫化物中微量元素的原位分析，为经济矿床的成因提供新的约束。人类学系的第四位早期职业科学家将利用LA-ICP-MS分析考古陶器，以限制贸易网络。

This project seeks to use laser ablation techniques to understand three fundamental aspects of the Earth system: 1) the origin and evolution of Earth?s continents, 2) the preservation of fossil bone material and its use in constraining aspects of Earth?s paleoclimate, and 3) understanding the source and development of economic ore deposits. Of particular interest to the national interest is the project?s efforts to mitigate dinosaur fossil bone poaching and to develop new methods for understanding the origin of economically viable metal ore deposits. This award also provides critical analytical support for three early career scientists, including two women, one of whom is Hispanic. Finally, the award will help establish a new laboratory that will facilitate the education of undergraduate and graduate Earth scientists in cutting edge analytical techniques that are applicable to understanding the Earth environment.This award will help establish the University of Arkansas? TRAIL facility (Trace element and Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory). Laser ablation capabilities provided by this award will be used to develop both conventional and split-stream analytical protocols for accessory phases, fossil bone, and sulfides utilizing the laboratory?s existing multi-collector and quadrupole ICP-MS instruments. The lab will be focused on three main goals: 1) using accessory phase (e.g., monazite, zircon, and titanite) Th-U-Pb petrochronology to constrain the metamorphic reactions that occur during melting and deformation in the deep continental crust, 2) understanding vertebrate taphonomy and its utility for constraining aspects of paleoclimate and paleoecology, and 3) providing new constraints on the genesis of economic ore deposits via the in situ analysis of Pb-isotopes, Cu-isotopes, and trace elements in sulfides. A fourth early career scientist in the Department of Anthropology will utilize LA-ICP-MS to analyze archeological pottery to constrain trade networks.