This award provides one-third of the funds required to purchase and install a large-volume, high-pressure-temperature cubic-anvil press capable of sustained operation up to 200 kilobars and 1500 degrees celsius. The equipment will be housed and operated in the Institute of Geophysics at the University of Hawaii. The University is committed to one-third funding and the Keck Foundation will provide the remaining one-third. Research plans for the facility include: (1) determination of equations of state, phase transitions, and kinetic studies on materials of the Earth's upper mantle, (2) measurement of electrical conductivity and seismic wave propagation velocity of mantle material as a function of degree of partial melting under reproduced upper mantle conditions of pressure and temperature.
