Early Career: Acquisition of a laser ablation system to enable new constraints on continental crust, dinosaurs, and ore deposits

University Of Arkansas, Fayetteville AR

Investigators

Abstract

This project seeks to use laser ablation techniques to understand three fundamental aspects of the Earth system: 1) the origin and evolution of Earth?s continents, 2) the preservation of fossil bone material and its use in constraining aspects of Earth?s paleoclimate, and 3) understanding the source and development of economic ore deposits. Of particular interest to the national interest is the project?s efforts to mitigate dinosaur fossil bone poaching and to develop new methods for understanding the origin of economically viable metal ore deposits. This award also provides critical analytical support for three early career scientists, including two women, one of whom is Hispanic. Finally, the award will help establish a new laboratory that will facilitate the education of undergraduate and graduate Earth scientists in cutting edge analytical techniques that are applicable to understanding the Earth environment. This award will help establish the University of Arkansas? TRAIL facility (Trace element and Radiogenic Isotope Laboratory). Laser ablation capabilities provided by this award will be used to develop both conventional and split-stream analytical protocols for accessory phases, fossil bone, and sulfides utilizing the laboratory?s existing multi-collector and quadrupole ICP-MS instruments. The lab will be focused on three main goals: 1) using accessory phase (e.g., monazite, zircon, and titanite) Th-U-Pb petrochronology to constrain the metamorphic reactions that occur during melting and deformation in the deep continental crust, 2) understanding vertebrate taphonomy and its utility for constraining aspects of paleoclimate and paleoecology, and 3) providing new constraints on the genesis of economic ore deposits via the in situ analysis of Pb-isotopes, Cu-isotopes, and trace elements in sulfides. A fourth early career scientist in the Department of Anthropology will utilize LA-ICP-MS to analyze archeological pottery to constrain trade networks.