This proposal seeks funding of ~$69K to purchase components which will be used to upgrade and modernize the UMd TZM vessel/furnace assemblies and high-temperature magmatic-hydrothermal laboratory. For this request, the PIs intend to acquire components to construct four rapid-quench TZM vessel/furnace assemblies with low and high pressure gas lines and rapid cooling infrastructure, a Deltech furnace able to control temperature and maintain oxygen and sulfur fugacity, components to construct an automated temperature control system and data recorder system (for the TZM vessels), and upgrade other experimental equipment. UMd will provide approximately $30K in matching funds. The equipment acquisition, device fabrication and laboratory upgrades will enhance research in high temperature and pressure geology. Experimentation will include andesitic and dacitic melt-volatile phase-sufide mineral/melt equilibria, synthesis experiments for glasses and minerals at varying temperatures and pressures, and sulfide-silicate equilibrium studies at Earth surface pressure and at fixed oxygen and sulfur fugacities at temperatures up to 1700 °C. In addition studies will be undertaken to better understand ore metal partitioning between crystalline and melt phases, between melts and volatile phases, and between brines and vapors. Equilibria for these components and processes will be established. The laboratory and equipment upgrades will support a department with 25 full and part-time graduate students. Undergraduates are required to write thesis dissertations. Students will be incorporated throughout the research agenda and will co-author and present results. The PIs along with their students have an annual ?Maryland Day? where the public experiences their research work. The instrumentation will also be incorporated into the curriculum.
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