NSF Award
2406887
This award funds the purchase of a multi-collector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (MC-ICP-MS) at the University of Utah to enable high-precision non-traditional isotope ratio measurements. Isotopes provide fundamental information about the world around us. The rocks that form our planet have been transformed through its history, with few original remaining pieces that are not deformed and twisted. This disfigured and patchy rock record is our only hope for understanding Earth’s past. Fortunately, some isotopes contained in these rocks are unstable, or “radiogenic”. These isotopes decay over known timescales, and their abundances can be used to estimate ages, such as the age of our planet and all of its pieces. Other isotopes contained in these rocks do not decay, i.e. they are stable. Their relative abundances are set by specific processes, for example interactions with free oxygen and biology. Isotopes contained in rocks serve as a tool for exploring the geologic history of our planet, past climates, and human interactions with the environment. Scientists at the University of Utah and beyond will benefit from the acquisition and availability of the new mass spectrometer. The instrument will be used to date ancient rocks and important events in Earth’s past, to track the movement of elements at and below Earth’s surface, to track the history of free oxygen, and to reconstruct the evolutionary history of complex life. <br/><br/>The MC-ICP-MS will be housed in and managed by the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah. Isotope ratio data collected with MC-ICP-MS technology is a fundamental research requirement of multiple recently hired early-career tenure-track faculty in the department. Some of the scientific applications of these faculty meet or exceed the limitations of currently present instrumentation. Increased detection limits associated with the new instrumentation will permit the generation of accurate and precise isotope ratio data for much smaller analyte abundances and isotope ratio differences. Technological advances associated with this newest generation of MC-ICP-MS instruments will dramatically simplify isotope ratio measurements for some classically cumbersome elemental systems (e.g., Calcium isotopes). Topics to be studied by the early-career scientists in the department include but are not limited to modern non-traditional isotope cycles, the rise of free oxygen on Earth, important events in biological evolution, anthropogenic pollution, fluid-rock interactions, subduction zone processes, magma genesis, crustal recycling, early solar system processes, and applications of non-traditional isotopes to medicine. Many new and existing users from across our largely rural state will benefit from the new instrumentation. In addition to supporting the education of undergraduate and graduate students in the department, the instrument will support the education of teachers through the Master of Science for Secondary School Teachers offered at the University of Utah. This award is funded by the Instrumentation and Facilities program in the Earth Science Division.<br/><br/>This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
