Technician Support: Arizona Radiogenic Helium Dating Lab and HR-ICP-MS Lab

University Of Arizona, Tucson AZ

Investigators

Abstract

0732380 Reiners This grant provides partial support for a full time lab manager/technician for the (U-Th)/He dating and sector ICP-MS labs in Geosciences at the University of Arizona. The lab manager supports user training, sample processing, equipment maintenance, and planning and design in both labs. (U-Th)/He chronometry (He dating) has expanded dramatically in the last decade and is now a staple of many regional tectonic and geomorphologic studies requiring constraints on the timing and rate of shallow-crustal exhumation. The He dating lab at the UofA supports training and analyses for diverse projects and workshops involving both external and internal PIs, undergraduate and graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. The lab conducts research in tectonic and geomorphic applications and experimental development and innovative applications of He dating. It performs experiments necessary for dating and interpreting He ages of unexplored phases, improved analytical methods, and applying He dating to a range of novel problems such as surface wildfire, detrital studies, and meteorite thermal histories. All of these projects require support from the lab manager/technician for user training, sample processing, and instrument maintenance. In addition to supporting He dating operations for both internal and external users, the technician support proposed here will provide for routine high-resolution (sector) ICP-MS analyses and training to a broad spectrum of users internal and external to the University of Arizona.