This award provides $168,038 in funding over 12 months to support the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility (NENIMF) at Woods Hole. The facility will feature the PI as the manager and an IMS 1280 which will allow flexible and wide-ranging analyses. The facility can analyze uranium, zircon and monazite Th-Pb chronology, high-resolution zircon Ti measurements for thermometry, volatiles and isotopic analysis in silicate glasses, and elemental ratios in marine carbonates. The facility behaves as a multi-user national resource with considerable outside institution demand. Principal facility interests are in microanalysis for magmatic volatiles in silicate glasses and biogenic carbonates. Other projects supported range from determining paleoceanographic proxies, melt inclusion analysis to determine geodynamic environments, submarine eruption histories and high pressure melt analyses. As a multi-user facility, impacts will span the range of projects supported. Students and scientists from WHOI and other institutions will be afforded training and have access to specialized analyses. Summer student fellows will be targeted for research training. Data generated through the facility will be incorporated into graduate courses. The NENIMF will operate through an internal steering committee consisting of the PIs and an outside advisory committee with which the PIs will work closely. The advisory committee meetings will be scheduled monthly. A website and publication history will be used to advertise the offered services.
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Secondary Ionization Mass Spectrometry (SIMS) is a powerful micro-analytical technique with broad applications to earth and ocean sciences. Funds from this grant provided twelve months of support for operation of the Northeast National Ion Microprobe Facility (NENIMF), a multi-user SIMS facility located at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The NENIMF focuses its analytical capabilities and expertise on two key research areas which constitute a unique interdisciplinary niche: determination of magmatic volatiles in silicate glasses and analysis of biogenic carbonates as records of climate change and related impacts on marine organisms. In addition to our areas of specialization, NENIMF users also took advantage of our Cameca IMS 1280 to work on a range of topics that include Zr in rutile geospeedometry, Ti diffusion in quartz, and U-Th-Pb dating of monazite. From March 2011 through February 2012 the NENIMF hosted forty-seven users from twenty-nine different institutions, including fifteen users from nine institutions outside the United States. Requests for access to the facility are submitted online via the NENIMF website. Due to the heavy demand, there is typically a five-to-six month wait for analytical time on the IMS 1280. Hourly user fees are $65 and $120 for the IMS 3f and 1280, respectively, for weekdays. Hourly rates for weekends and holidays are $55.25 (IMS 3f) and $102 (IMS 1280). These rates have remained constant since 2006 and apply to all projects funded by NSF and other government agencies. Users are not charged for instrument setup by the NENIMF personnel, but these costs are billed to the facility. Time for analysis of reference standards to establish calibration curves − a necessary procedure for all analytical protocols to ensure acquisition of high-quality analytical data − is charged to users. From March 2011 through February 2012 the NENIMF hosted forty-seven users from twenty-nine different institutions, including fifteen users from nine institutions outside the United States. Total beam hours on the IMS 1280 over that period were 3230 ? 1080 by WHOI users and 2150 by users from other institutions (Fig. 1). Figure 2 shows a breakdown of funding sources for NENIMF users over the grant period. The largest single funding source was the NSF Division of Earth Sciences (35% of total beam hours), followed by international users (18 % of total beam hours). NENIMF has become a major analytical service that the facility provides to the community. Systematics of volatile element abundances in olivine- and plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions significantly contributed to a better understanding of mechanisms of submarine explosive eruptions at the Loihi Seamount, Hawaii and at the Axial Caldera at the Juan de Fuca Ridge. Major efforts were made to develop SIMS techniques for in-situ determination of sulfur isotopic compositions of silicate glasses and sulfide minerals. Major efforts were made to develop SIMS techniques for in-situ determination of sulfur isotopic compositions of silicate glasses and sulfide minerals. A classical approach of geospeedometry based on trace element geothermometry was used for constraining cooling rates of rocks in two separate studies, demonstrating the usefulness of the high spatial resolution characteristic of SIMS techniques. Boron in marine carbonates can be a useful proxy for seawater pH, and a study was made on vesicle pH in cultured coccoliths. Additional majors findings have been: CO2 and H2O abundances were measured in a suite olivine-hosted melt inclusions from a pyroclastic deposit (~1000 m water depth) from the Loihi Seamount. The observed variations were consistent with closed-system degassing at ~3 km below the vent, and suggested that seawater-magma interaction at the depth contributed to weakening and fragmentation of magma and triggered an explosive submarine eruption at Loihi (Schipper et al., 2010). These results show the importance and usefulness of volatile element systematics in gaining a better understanding of mechanisms of submarine explosive eruptions. Deep recycling of volatile elements and their behavior during mantle melting are important topics of research, and one of the fundamental parameters is mineral-melt partitioning. A ratios of two very incompatible elements displaying such a large range of variability strongly indicates that the MORB source mantle is very heterogeneous with respect to these elements, reflecting variable contributions of recycled components (Shimizu, 2011, Goldschmidt Conf. abstract). SIMS techniques for in-situ determination of sulfur isotopic compositions of silicate glasses and sulfide minerals have been developed with the IMS 1280 at NENIMF. The Zr in rutile thermometer was used to determine temperature of crystallization and subsequent cooling (geospeedometry) in the lower crustal xenoliths in the Archean Medicine Hat Block and the Great Falls Tectonic Zone (Blackburn et al., 2012).
