This award provides 53% of the acquisition costs for an automated multiple collection thermal ionization source mass spectrometer to be operated and maintained in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the State University of New York (SUNY) in Stony Brook. The remaining funds are to be provided by the SUNY system. The acquisition of the mass spectrometer system is necessary for the continuance of research projects involving five faculty members and approximately 15 graduate research students in the Department of Earth and Space Sciences. The research areas needing the high precision, the low-abundance sensitivity, and the micro-sample capabilities of the new instrument include: work on Tertiary volcanism in the southwest U.S.; geochemical studies of magmatism along the East Pacific Rise; trace element studies of the origin of dolomites; lead isotopic studies of the lead- zinc ores in the Mississippi Valley; and the oxygen, carbon, strontium and boron isotope abundances of ancient seawater and carbonate deposits.
