Early Career: Technical support for a uranium-series isotope geochemistry laboratory focused on Earth?s climate and surface processes

早期职业生涯：为专注于地球气候和表面过程的铀系同位素地球化学实验室提供技术支持

• 批准号: 1439559
• 负责人: William McGee
• 金额: $ 35.55万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-01-15 至 2018-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1439559&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Early; Career; Technical; support; uranium

Advances in our understanding of the evolution of Earth's climate and surface processes depend in large part upon absolute dating of Earth materials. In studies of past climate changes, high-precision age determinations during the last several hundred thousand years undergird efforts to determine rates of change and test temporal relationships between climate events. This award provides technical support for an early career researcher's laboratory which will allow rapid development of radioisotope based dating methods that optimize precision and efficiency, and foster the development of high-resolution records of past climate tied to precise and accurate ages for a wide variety of collaborative projects. Additional applications of high-precision data throughout the Earth sciences will provide key insights into marine sediment accumulation rates, timescales of weathering and sediment transport, and trace metal cycling in the modern ocean. In addition to substantially accelerating the analytical, collaborative and outreach activities of an early career faculty member, the technician's contributions to method development and new user training would benefit several other internal and external researchers by increasing their access to cutting-edge analytical facilities. In addition, the technician will facilitate hands-on training for graduate students and postdoctoral researchers both within and outside of the research group, helping prepare the next generation of analysts and broadening exposure to high-precision isotope analysis. The technician will facilitate isotopic analyses as a part of an undergraduate course that gives students first-hand geochemistry research experience. The technician will offer training and mentorship to ensure that these undergraduates receive the maximum benefit from their time in the lab. The analytical facility managed by the proposed technician will provide an important resource for the geoscience community, substantially increasing the availability of precise and accurate uranium-thorium ages and uranium-series isotope data for Earth science research. The targeted method development enabled by the technician will help increase the efficiency and precision of existing uranium-series applications and contribute to the development of new tools involving uranium-series.Specifically, this award funds three years of support for a laboratory technician who will facilitate the development of an isotope geochemistry lab for the application of uranium-series isotopes to studies of Quaternary geochronology, paleoclimate and Earth surface history. The technician will also enable advances in applications of uranium-series isotope systems to other parts of the Earth system through targeted method development and the collection of pilot data, focused in particular on improving the use of uranium-series disequilibrium to estimate timescales of weathering and sediment transport. In addition, collaborations facilitated by the technician's contributions will further extend the impact of the proposed support. The technician will work with other labs to intercalibrate tracers and analytical procedures, helping to establish a geochronology facility that integrates the uranium-thorium and uranium-lead geochronometers to push detailed climate records past the limits of uranium-thorium geochronology back to several million years. In addition, the technician's contributions to developing new analytical protocols and training external users will broaden the facility's capabilities beyond uranium-series to other isotope systems including chromium, iron, and hafnium, directly benefiting researchers with interests ranging from crustal evolution to trace metal cycling in the ocean.

我们对地球气候和表面过程演化的理解的进展在很大程度上取决于地球材料的绝对年代测定。在对过去气候变化的研究中，过去数十万年的高精度年龄测定巩固了确定变化率和测试气候事件之间时间关系的努力。该奖项为早期职业研究人员的实验室提供技术支持，该实验室将允许快速开发基于放射性同位素的测年方法，优化精度和效率，并促进开发与各种精确和准确的年龄相关的过去气候的高分辨率记录。合作项目。 高精度数据在整个地球科学中的其他应用将为海洋沉积物积累速率、风化和沉积物运输的时间尺度以及现代海洋中的痕量金属循环提供重要见解。除了大幅加速早期职业教员的分析、协作和外展活动外，技术人员对方法开发和新用户培训的贡献还将通过增加其他内部和外部研究人员使用尖端分析设施的机会而使他们受益。此外，技术人员还将促进研究组内外的研究生和博士后研究人员的实践培训，帮助培养下一代分析师并扩大高精度同位素分析的范围。 技术人员将促进同位素分析作为本科课程的一部分，为学生提供第一手的地球化学研究经验。技术人员将提供培训和指导，以确保这些本科生从实验室的时间中获得最大的收益。由拟议技术人员管理的分析设施将为地球科学界提供重要资源，大大提高地球科学研究中精确、准确的铀-钍年龄和铀系同位素数据的可用性。技术人员实现的有针对性的方法开发将有助于提高现有铀系列应用的效率和精度，并有助于开发涉及铀系列的新工具。具体来说，该奖项为实验室技术人员提供三年的支持，该技术人员将促进建立同位素地球化学实验室，将铀系同位素应用于第四纪地质年代学、古气候和地球表面历史的研究。该技术人员还将通过有针对性的方法开发和试点数据收集，推动铀系同位素系统在地球系统其他部分的应用取得进展，特别注重改进铀系不平衡的使用，以估计风化和侵蚀的时间尺度。泥沙输送。此外，技术人员的贡献促进的合作将进一步扩大拟议支持的影响。该技术人员将与其他实验室合作，相互校准示踪剂和分析程序，帮助建立一个地质年代学设施，整合铀-钍和铀-铅地质年代学仪，将详细的气候记录推向铀-钍地质年代学的极限，追溯到几百万年。此外，技术人员对开发新的分析方案和培训外部用户的贡献将扩大该设施的能力，从铀系列扩展到其他同位素系统，包括铬、铁和铪，直接使研究人员受益，这些研究人员的兴趣范围从地壳演化到痕量金属循环。海洋。