Acquisition of A Gas Source Mass Spectrometer For Earth Sciences Research, University Of California, Berkeley

University Of California-Berkeley, Berkeley CA

Investigators

Abstract

0112113 Ingram This NSF grant provides partial support for the purchase of a gas source isotope ratio mass spectrometer with peripheral sample preparation attachments, to be housed in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California, Berkeley. The equipment includes an automated water and carbonate preparation system and an elemental analyzer. The instrumentation will be primarily used by the research groups of the three Principal Investigators B. Lynn Ingram, Michael Manga, and Kurt Cuffey. The Department of Earth and Planetary Science has recently provided newly upgraded space to house the requested equipment. The requested package will greatly enhance the research capabilities of students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty in the Departments of Earth and Planetary Science and Geography, and on the U.C. Berkeley campus in general. Research areas include the use of carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen isotopes in paleoclimatological and paleoenvironmental reconstructions using estuarine, wetland, lacustrine, and coastal marine sediments and corals (Dr. Ingram, Earth and Planetary Science Department), the use of oxygen and hydrogen isotopes as tracers in hydrogeologic systems (Dr. Manga, Department of Earth and Planetary Science), and the use of oxygen and deuterium isotopic ratios of water and ice in glaciologic research (Dr. Cuffey, Department of Geography). Other users of the proposed mass spectrometer facility from the Department of Earth and Planetary Science include James Kirchner (watershed hydrology and biogeochemistry, and surface process geomorphology), Walter Alvarez (asteroid impacts, tectonics of the Mediterranean region, stratigraphy of pelagic limestones), Dr. George Brimhall (mineral resources, low temperature geochemistry, soil geochemistry), and Dr. William Berry (global climate change and paleogeographic, oceanographic and life changes in the Paleozoic). Another potential user from the Department of Geography is Roger Byrne (historical biogeography, paleoenvironments of California and Mexico, and pollen analysis). ***