This award provides two-thirds of the funding for acquiring a computerized control and analysis system for specialized microscopy of rock deformation experiments. The equipment is to be installed and used in the Department of Geological Sciences at the State University of New York in Albany. The SUNY system is committed to providing the remaining one-third funding for the acquisition of the equipment. Rocks and minerals subjected to mechanical stress and chemical changes deform very slowly over geologically significant periods of time. Much insight on the processes of recrystallization, diffusive transfer of material, phase transformations and other processes that influence the mechanical-chemical behavior and the microstructure of deformed rocks can be harvested from studying, under the microscope, the deformation of synthetic analogs during much shorter time scales. The acquisition of this equipment will allow one of the leading research groups performing this type of research to automate the control, recording, and analysis of the microstructural evolution of rock deformation.
