9615257 Brearley This grant provides $90,000 as partial support of the costs of acquiring a new, state-of-the-art scanning electron microscope (SEM) with a high resolution backscattered electron detector, an ultrathin window for light element energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS) analysis, a computer controlled stage for X-ray mapping and a digital image processing system. The new SEM would benefit a large group of researchers in the Department of Earth Sciences and Institute of Meteoritics as well as regional users. Additional funds for the purchase of this instrument will be provided by University matching funds ($70,000) and a funded NASA proposal ($90,000). The new SEM will replace their current Hitachi S450 SEM (circa 1980) which has a faltering EDS and thus provides unreliable backscattered electron images and poor quality high-resolution (x5000) images of geological and planetary materials. The new SEM will benefit a large number of projects including studies of the mechanisms and kinetics of phase changes of olivine to beta and gamma-spinel at depth within the mantle via analysis of the backscattered electron images from SEM scans to elucidate nucleation rates, identification of clay mineralogy during early sedimentary diagenesis, X-ray mapping of crustal xenoliths to help unravel the geochemical evolution of the Proterozoic crust beneath the Colorado Plateau, characterization of magnetic mineral phases as ancillary to paleomagnetic studies, SEM mapping of thin sections to select appropriate regions for subsequent SIMS analysis and analyses of surface textures of subaerial volcanics and planetary materials etc. etc. The remarkable level of funded research in this group's portfolio will fully subscribe the new SEM which will also aid SEM research projects conducted by both graduate and undergraduate students. ***
