This award provides one-half the funds required for the acquisition of a gas-source isotope ratio mass spectrometer to be installed and operated by the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington. The Carnegie Institution is committed to providing the remaining funds needed. Recent improvements in the design of gas-source, isotope ratio mass spectrometers have greatly expanded the application of stable isotope geochemistry to research in the evolution of life and inorganic geochemical processes. This instrument will be used in a number of research projects including studies of mass transfer processes in the Earth's crust and upper mantle and isotopic fractionation in biochemical metabolic reactions.
