This NSF award supports a technical position in Syracuse University's Noble Gas Isotope Research Laboratory (SUNGIRL). The position, currently filled by Dr. Laura Webb, is cost shared with contributions from Syracuse University. SUNGIRL consists of 1) a state-of-the-art Micromass 5400 noble gas mass spectrometer and extraction line used primarily for 40Ar/39Ar analyses, and 2) a quadrupole mass spectrometer and automated extraction line for He analysis in conjunction with (U-Th)/He dating. The laboratory is shared by two faculty members in Earth Sciences, Suzanne Baldwin and Paul Fitzgerald, whose research focuses on the thermochronologic evolution of crustal terranes. The award will initially allow timely completion and commissioning of the lab, including automation of the noble gas extraction line. During the course of this award we also plan to build a laser system for in situ analysis of minerals in thick sections, as well as outgassing of mineral grains in conjunction with (U-Th)/He and 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology. The laboratory will be utilized by Syracuse University faculty, researchers, post-doctoral fellows, graduate and undergraduate students, and visiting U.S. and international researchers. Under the general direction of the PIs, Dr. Webb will be responsible for the day-to-day management and operation of the laboratory including maintenance of equipment, design modifications, and development of noble gas mass spectrometric techniques. Dr. Webb will also participate in ongoing NSF-sponsored research which presently includes thermochronologic analyses (40Ar/39Ar, (U-Th)/He, and fission track) in areas of continental extension (Basin and Range Province, Transantarctic Mountains) and oblique convergence (Southern Alps of New Zealand). We are also dating late Quaternary volcanic ashes from the Peruvian-Bolivian Altiplano in collaboration with Geoff Seltzer and colleagues in order to provide a geochronological framework for paleoclimatic research of the tropical Andes utilizing drill cores obtained through NSF funded research. Pending NSF proposals that will utilize SUNGIRL include thermochronologic research in the Pyrenean collisional orogen and in the active metamorphic core complexes of the Western Woodlark Basin of Papua New Guinea.
