In August, 1997, the Department of Geology acquired a number of valuable pieces of experimental equipment from Stanford University. Equipment includes: 1) A high-capacity 1.4 GPa Harwood two-stage gas compressor and smaller third stage "vernier" pump. 2) Two 5 cm bore internally heated pressure vessels and a smaller 4.1 cm bore vessel, all with a design pressure of 1 GPa. 3) A large collection of valves gauges and tubing. Building on funds already provided by the University of Washington, the investigators will assemble this equipment into a working state-of the-art high-pressure high-temperature experimental facility. This facility will be used for experimental exploration of geological problems under conditions ranging from ambient to 1 GPa (10,000 bars) pressure and temperatures up to 1,500 degrees centigrade under controlled or monitored fugacities of hydrogen, oxygen and sulfur. This PT range is not accurately accessible by any other commonly used experimental method. This facility will be capable of exploring conditions found over most of Earth's continental crust and down to upper oceanic mantle. This pressure and temperature range also includes the probable source region for Martian shergottites (Ghosal et al., 1998). The large volume of this experimental apparatus and the ability to incorporate numerous electrical feedthroughs into the high pressure environment allows tremendous flexibility in experimental design. Furthermore, because the pressure medium is a gas, pressures can be measured accurately, and one can be assured that the pressure experienced by the sample is entirely isotropic. Ultrasonic experiments are proposed that can only be done in this type of device. ***
