Laboratory Technician Support: Enhancing High-Precision 40Ar/39Ar Dating at the OSU Argon Geochronology Laboratory

实验室技术人员支持：增强 OSU 氩地质年代学实验室的高精度 40Ar/39Ar 测年

• 批准号: 1735765
• 负责人: Anthony Koppers
• 金额: $ 69.93万
• 依托单位: Oregon State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2017-09-15 至 2024-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1735765&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Laboratory; Technician; Support; Enhancing; Precision

The OSU Argon Geochronology Laboratory has employed K/Ar and 40Ar/39Ar dating methods at Oregon State University (OSU) since 1969. Our user-base is ever-growing and ranges from students, post-docs and collaborators at OSU to many clients and collaborators throughout the U.S. and internationally. Over the last decade, we have substantially upgraded our facility and we now have in operation two new ARGUS-VI multi-collector mass spectrometers. Applying the ARGUS-VI to modern-day 40Ar/39Ar geochronology has provided us with a quantum leap forward in precision, accuracy and throughput of analyses. Our analytical precision is 10x improved using 60-95% less material. In addition, with two fully-automated ARGUS-VI instruments now online, we are projecting to carry out more than 70,000 analyses/year on ~1,300 samples from ~130 different research or educational projects. With this proposal, we will hire an experienced geochronologist with an MS or PhD degree and experience in 40Ar/39Ar geochronology. The successful candidate is envisioned to expand our expertise beyond our current research areas and would double our capacity for supporting the in-creasing number of NSF-funded geochronology projects in our laboratory.Recent research made possible through the ARGUS-VI instruments in the OSU Argon Geochronology Laboratory include the high-precision dating of (i) Late Pleistocene and Holocene sanidine and volcanic samples as young as a few thousand years, (ii) magnetic reversals and excursions in terrestrial lava flow records, (iii) low-potassium basalts from ocean crust, bonitites and tholeiites, (iv) ultra-low-potassium clinopyroxene, and (v) terrestrial volcanic centers younger than 5 Ma to improve our understanding their eruptive histories and related geohazards. These five examples of our recent advances, provide an exciting foundation for growing our research enterprise over the next decade. The new 40Ar/39Ar geochronology technician will play a critical role in building out those research avenues, while bringing to OSU research interests and skill sets that significantly expand our laboratory?s research portfolio.

OSU 氩地质年代学实验室自 1969 年以来一直在俄勒冈州立大学 (OSU) 采用 K/Ar 和 40Ar/39Ar 测年方法。我们的用户群不断增长，包括 OSU 的学生、博士后和合作者以及许多客户和客户。遍布美国和国际的合作者。在过去的十年中，我们对设施进行了大幅升级，现在两台新的 ARGUS-VI 多接收器质谱仪正在运行。将 ARGUS-VI 应用于现代 40Ar/39Ar 地质年代学使我们在分析精度、准确度和吞吐量方面实现了巨大飞跃。我们的分析精度提高了 10 倍，使用的材料减少了 60-95%。此外，两台全自动 ARGUS-VI 仪器现已上线，我们预计每年会对来自约 130 个不同研究或教育项目的约 1,300 个样本进行超过 70,000 次分析。根据此提案，我们将聘请一位经验丰富的地质年代学家，拥有硕士或博士学位，并具有 40Ar/39Ar 地质年代学经验。成功的候选人有望将我们的专业知识扩展到当前研究领域之外，并将使我们的能力加倍，以支持我们实验室中越来越多的 NSF 资助的地质年代学项目。最近的研究通过 OSU Argon 中的 ARGUS-VI 仪器得以实现地质年代学实验室包括对 (i) 晚更新世和全新世 sanidine 以及距今几千年的火山样本进行高精度测年，(ii) 磁反转和偏移陆地熔岩流记录，(iii) 来自洋壳的低钾玄武岩、铍岩和拉斑玄武岩，(iv) 超低钾单斜辉石，以及 (v) 小于 5 Ma 的陆地火山中心，以提高我们对它们的喷发历史和相关知识的了解地质灾害。我们最新进展的这五个例子为我们的研究事业在未来十年的发展奠定了令人兴奋的基础。新的 40Ar/39Ar 地质年代学技术人员将在构建这些研究途径方面发挥关键作用，同时为俄勒冈州立大学带来研究兴趣和技能，从而显着扩展我们实验室的研究组合。