Facility Support: Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory

Purdue University, West Lafayette IN

Investigators

Abstract

0851981 Caffee This grant provides three years of continued partial support for the operation and maintenance of the Purdue Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory (PRIME Lab)at Purdue University as a multi-user national facility for the geosciences and ancillary fields. Support for this Facility allows geoscientists access to specialized capabilities of the accelerator mass spectrometer and chemical preparation facilities at PRIME for the measurement of the very low-level cosmogenic nuclides 10Be, 14C, 26Al, 36Cl, 41Ca, and 129I for chronological and/or tracer studies. The Facility is currently developing techniques for other analysis of other rare isotopes with application to meteoritics and other fields. Funding provides minor salary support for PI faculty members, professional and technical staff members; maintenance support for the AMS system, including replacement parts; and expendable supplies for the chemistry laboratory. Additional operating expenses (about 50%) are derived from Purdue University, charges for sample measurement services, and research grants to the PI?s. The measurement of cosmogenic radionuclides by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) continues to support novel research in Earth surface processes and Quaternary geology, hydrology and glaciology which rely on surface exposure age dating, erosion rate estimates and isotopic tracer techniques for quantification of process rates. PRIME lab continues to be one of the only AMS labs worldwide that offers measurement and application services for AMS radionuclide systems other than radiocarbon and is currently the only laboratory that offers full service, chemical preparation through AMS measurement. PRIME Lab PIs continue to develop new AMS chemical separation and dating techniques and maintain actively funded research and research training programs that involve application of these radionuclides to a variety of geoscience problems.