This award provides one-half the funds necessary for the acquisition of a controlled-magnetic field high-temperature oven for programmed heat treatment of magnetic rock samples. The oven is to be operated and housed in the Department of Geology at Occidental College. The award is made under the guidelines of the NSF program for Research in Undergraduate Institutions, and the equipment will be integrated into the undergraduate training program at Occidental College. The Principal Investigator of the project requires the heat treatment oven for his research which aimed at documenting and explaining the important phenomenon of reversal of the Earth's magnetic field every few hundred thousand years.
