This grant provides partial support for the acquisition of a noble gas mass spectrometer, a UV/IR dual laser system, high precision furnace, and associated vacuum equipment and electronics to construct a facility for 40Ar/39Ar geochronology and rare gas geochemical investigations at the University of Florida. The lead PI, David Foster recently (1998) joined the faculty at the University of Florida after spending several years as a senior researcher at La Trobe University in Australia. He joins Paul Mueller, Michael Perfit and Ann Heatherington in the geochemistry and petrology group. Establishment of a thermochronology facility at Florida will complement existing and successfully operated geochemical instrumentation in the Geology Department including a TIMS, ICP-MS and SIRMS and will add capacity to a limited U.S. geoscience analytical infrastructure for Ar/Ar geochronology. The noble gas mass spectrometer will facilitate research in tectonics, economic geology, basin studies, geomorphology and anthropology by providing for constraints on the timing and rates of geologic processes.
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