9629959 White This grant provides $148,179 as three years partial salary support for a technician who will be responsible for operations, maintenance and oversight of instrumentation in the W.M. Keck Foundation Laboratory at Cornell University. This laboratory houses an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) used for trace element analysis of geological samples, a thermal ionization mass spectrometer (TIMS) used to determine the isotopic composition of radiogenic elements in geological and biological samples and a clean room for sample preparation. These instruments serve the analytical needs of this group's diverse studies including, analyses of the geochemical signatures in island arc magmas and mid-ocean ridge basalts and the use of isotopic ratios of strontium (Sr) and neodymium (Nd) as tracers of both sediment provenance and weathering history of the Himalayas and biogeochemical cycling in forested ecosystems. ***
