Acquisition of microscope and automated stage system for fission-track analysis

购买用于裂变径迹分析的显微镜和自动载物台系统

• 批准号: 0929922
• 负责人: Stuart Thomson
• 金额: $ 3.2万
• 依托单位: University of Arizona
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-15 至 2011-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0929922&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Acquisition; microscope; automated; stage; system

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).This award provides the Department of Geosciences at the University of Arizona with the laboratory equipment to carry out fission-track analysis ? a widely applied age dating technique that provides detailed information on the low temperature thermal history of rocks and minerals. The acquisition of this equipment fills a significant gap in the existing geochronological facilities of the department. Of broader significance is that this facility provides a unique in-house capability to obtain multiple ages from single mineral grains (as small as grains of sand) using the complementary techniques of uranium-lead, fission-track, and uranium-thorium-helium dating. Uranium-lead dating provides the age of formation of the particular mineral being analyzed, while fission-track and uranium-thorium-helium dating provide the time that particular mineral cooled through temperatures below about 250 degrees Celsius to 60 degrees Celsius. Knowing the timing and rates of cooling below the latter temperatures is particularly useful as it provides information of rates and timing of erosion, and by proxy, unique information on, for example, the timing and rates of mountain building processes, landscape formation, and sediment deposition. Such "triple-dating" has unique and innovative potential applications in fields such as understanding glacial processes in Antarctica, evaluating interactions involving climate, climate change and mountain building, to providing valuable new information on the formation and exploration of oil, gas, and mineral deposits.The potential to perform fission-track analysis benefits a variety of ongoing and future projects at the University of Arizona investigating problems as diverse as sedimentary provenance, modern and ancient orogenic and landscape evolution, identification of wildfire in the geologic record, and the role of late Cenozoic global cooling and glaciation on controlling active mountain building. Furthermore, combining fission-track and uranium-thorium-helium dating with the departmental state-of-the-art laser ablation multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass-spectrometer for uranium-lead dating allows not only the triple-dating of the commonly-used mineral zircon, but also the analysis of other more analytically complex minerals such as titanite, apatite, and monazite. Fission-track facilities also enhance the infrastructure for research and teaching in the University of Arizona Department of Geosciences. A number of undergraduate and graduate students as well as a few post-docs are working on problems that benefit greatly from the application of the fission-track method. These facilities provide them with the opportunity to gain hands-on experience in learning and applying this methodology. This equipment also forms a vital part of ongoing and planned NSF-funded summer student thermochronology workshops held at the University of Arizona.

该奖项是根据2009年《美国回收与再投资法》（美国法律111-5）资助的。该奖项为亚利桑那大学的地球科学系提供了实验室设备，以进行裂变轨道分析？一种广泛应用的年龄约会技术，可提供有关岩石和矿物质低温热史历史的详细信息。该设备的收购填补了该部门现有的年代学设施的显着空白。更广泛的重要性是，该设施提供了独特的内部能力，可以使用铀铅，裂变轨道和铀 - 硫硫代的互补技术从单个矿物晶粒（与沙子的小一样小）获取多个年龄。铀领先的年代提供了被分析的特定矿物质形成的年龄，而裂变轨道和铀 - 硫硫次的年代的年限为特定的矿物质通过低于250摄氏度至60摄氏度的特定温度冷却的时间。了解后一个温度以下的冷却时间和速度特别有用，因为它提供了侵蚀的速率和时间的信息，并通过代理，独特的信息，例如，例如，山地建筑过程的时机和速度，景观形成和沉积物沉积。这种“三重年代”在诸如了解南极洲的冰川过程等领域具有独特而创新的潜在应用，评估涉及气候，气候变化和山地建筑的互动，以提供有关石油，天然气和矿物质的石油，天然气和矿物质的形成和探索的有价值的新信息造山学和景观演变，地质记录中野火的鉴定以及晚期的新生代全球冷却和冰川在控制活动山区建筑中的作用。此外，将裂变轨道和铀硫螺旋与部门的最先进的激光消融多动力组合多动力脉络耦合等离子体质谱仪用于铀铅的日期，不仅可以使常用的矿物质齐布族的三重年代延长，而且还可以对其他分析进行分析，以分析更复杂的分析。裂变轨道设施还增强了亚利桑那大学地球科学系研究和教学的基础设施。许多本科生和研究生以及一些职位后正在研究从裂变轨道方法中受益匪浅的问题。这些设施为他们提供了获得学习和运用这种方法的动手经验的机会。该设备还构成了在亚利桑那大学举行的正在进行和计划的NSF资助的NSF资助的夏季学生热合学研讨会的重要组成部分。