Acquisition of EBSD Detector and Software for Microstructural Analyses

Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Woods Hole MA

Investigators

Abstract

0112266 Hirth This grant provides partial support for acquisition of EBSD hardware and software for microstructural observations of deformed rocks. The EBSD will be installed on a SEM at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) in Woods Hole, MA. The PI, Greg Hirth, is a tenured Associate Scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The EBSD facility will be available to a diverse range of research projects being pursued by scientists in the Woods Hole community. The EBSD is now becoming a powerful phase identification tool. This capability will be particularly useful for petrologists and geochemists at WHOI that analyze fine-grained experimental charges and fine-grained metamorphic assemblages produced during hydrothermal processes in the oceanic crust. The EBSD also has important applications for geomicrobiologists (the analysis of crystallographic control on the attachment of microbial material to mineral surfaces) and scientists studying global climate change (the identification of daily growth regions in corals). Finally, education opportunities for applications of EBSD, which would be installed on an SEM at the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL), will be enhanced by the microscopy short courses held each summer at the MBL. Support for this grant is shared between the Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities Program (EAR/IF), and the Division of Ocean Sciences (OCE). ***