This award provides partial funding to modernize the thermal ionization source mass spectrometer system operated in the Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences at the California Institute of Technology. The upgrade will include replacement and correction of ion collectors which have degraded during the intensive use of the spectrometer during the last six years and construction of a new filament source system. In addition, the award will also be used to partially fund the acquisition of equipment to improve the Division's mineral separation laboratory. The California Institute of Technology is committed to providing matching support. Several research groups in the Geological and Planetary Division at Caltech make extensive use of these facilities in research projects spanning a broad spectrum of interest in petrogenesis, tectonics and geodynamics of continental crusts and margins, geological hazards, and environmental geochemistry.
