This award provides one-half of the funding to acquire a Fourier-Transform Infrared spectrometer for the Department of Geology at the University of California-Davis. The University of California-Davis is committed to providing the remaining half. The instrument will be used for research involving the far- infrared spectra of minerals subjected to high pressure and temperature. Acquisition of these spectra is important because they provide information about the fundamental properties of material in the Earth's mantle that cannot be sampled directly, and such data are lacking for most minerals.
